By Paul Cornell

How can you record the date you last spoke with or sent e-mail to someone in your Outlook 2002 Contacts list? In this article, you will learn how to create an Outlook macro that adds a last contacted date to one of your contacts.

I occasionally use the Journal feature in Microsoft Outlook® 2002 to associate e-mail messages, meeting items, task items, and Office files with my contacts. I sometimes create individual Journal items and associate them with individual contacts as well. However, sometimes I want to quickly make a note of when I last contacted someone without taking the time to create a complete Journal item. The following steps enable you to quickly make a tick mark that notes when you last spoke with or sent e-mail to one of your Outlook contacts.

To create a macro to add a last contacted date to an Outlook 2002 contact

1. From inside Outlook, open the Microsoft Office Visual Basic® Editor. (On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Visual Basic Editor.)
2. If the Project Explorer window is not visible, on the View menu, click Project Explorer.
3. In the Project Explorer window, expand the folder tree to open the Microsoft Outlook Objects folder, and then double-click ThisOutlookSession.
4. Type the following code into the Code window (the large, blank window on the right side of the screen):

   Public Sub LastContacted()
   
       ' Purpose: Adds a "Last Contacted" property to
       ' the active contact item.
       ' Note: You must select a contact item before
       ' running this macro.
       
       Dim olApp As Outlook.Application
       Dim oSel As Outlook.Selection
       Dim oContact As Outlook.ContactItem
       Dim oPrp As Outlook.ItemProperty
       Dim bFieldExists As Boolean
       
       Const FIELD_NAME As String = "Last Contacted"
       
       On Error GoTo LastContacted_Err
       
       Set olApp = Outlook.Application
       Set oSel = olApp.ActiveExplorer.Selection
           
       ' Only one item can be selected.
       If oSel.Count > 1 Then
       
           MsgBox "You selected more than one item. " & _
               "Select only one item and try again."
           Exit Sub
           
       End If
       
       ' Selected item must be a contact item.
       Set oContact = oSel.Item(1)
           
       ' Check for a custom "Last Contacted" field.
       For Each oPrp In oContact.ItemProperties
           
           If oPrp.Name = FIELD_NAME Then
               
               bFieldExists = True
               oPrp.Value = Now
               MsgBox FIELD_NAME & " property updated."
               
           End If
       
       Next oPrp
           
       ' Create "Last Contacted" field if it doesn't already exist.
       If bFieldExists = False Then
           
           Set oPrp = _
               oContact.ItemProperties.Add(FIELD_NAME, olDateTime)
           
           oPrp.Value = Now
           MsgBox FIELD_NAME & " property created and updated."
           
       End If
       
       oContact.Save
       
   LastContacted_End:
   
       Set oPrp = Nothing
       Set oContact = Nothing
       Set oSel = Nothing
       Set olApp = Nothing
       
       Exit Sub
   
   LastContacted_Err:
   
       Select Case Err.Number
           
           Case 13 ' Not a contact item.
         
               MsgBox "You can only run this macro on contact " & _
                   "items. Select one contact item and try again."
           
           Case Else   ' Unanticipated error.
           
               MsgBox "Error " & Err.Number & " in LastContacted " & _
                   "subroutine: " & Err.Description
                   
       End Select
       
       Resume LastContacted_Err
   
   End Sub
   

   
   
5. On the File menu, click Close and Return to Microsoft Outlook.

To run the macro

1. Open your Outlook Contacts folder.
2. Select a single contact item (do not open the contact item).
3. On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Macros.
4. Click LastContacted, and then click Run.
5. Click OK when the dialog box appears.
6. Open the selected Outlook contact item.
7. On the All Fields tab, in the Select from list, click User-defined fields in this item.

The Last Contacted field appears along with the date and time you ran the LastContacted macro. Be sure to run this macro at or near the time you make your call or send e-mail, so that the date and time entered by the macro are correct.

If you're willing to learn a little more about how this macro functions technically, you can modify it to create additional user-defined fields. For more information, see these resources on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN):

• ItemProperties Collection
• Add Method (Click the Add method as it applies to the ItemProperties object entry on the page to display the details.)

Keep sending that e-mail!

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About the author

Paul Cornell works for the Office Help team. In addition to writing the Office Power User Corner column, Paul contributes to the Office Talk column on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN). He is the author of the book Accessing and Analyzing Data with Microsoft Excel.

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