Can a macro in Excel send an email?

Excel is great for creating spreadsheets that help you make sense of numbers or text. It's also useful if your spreadsheet contains formulas. But what about macros? Can you use them to create spreadsheets that can automate tasks like sending emails? In this article we'll explain how you can write macros to control other people's computers so they don't need any knowledge at all about programming! Let's get started…

First off, let's look at some simple ways to write code within Excel itself. We're going to take advantage of one particular feature called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). You may have heard it referred to as "macro" but that name isn't exactly accurate – VBA is actually better thought of as being part of Office automation rather than something you'd use to program apps on top of Excel. The main reason why is because the language used to program these scripts is very similar to languages such as C++ and Java. If you've ever programmed anything before then you should be fine picking up VBA. The best way to learn is by getting yourself a copy of Microsoft's free coding manual here. Once you understand the basics then you can start creating functions that will run on their own without needing you to manually open up Excel every time. Functions are basically small chunks of code which perform specific actions when activated. For example, say you want to add 10% onto each number stored inside cells A1 through D4. To do that you would put together a function like this:

=A1+10*B1+C1+D1

You could even set up a button on a toolbar to activate this script whenever clicked. This might not seem too exciting, but once you start learning more tricks and combining bits of different functions together then you really unlock the power of VBA.

If you wanted to go further though you could turn those basic functions into fully fledged applications that can interact with Windows features. One popular option is setting up a timer to launch certain programs after a period has elapsed. Here's an example where you could build a command prompt-style interface that allows users to input commands and receive responses.

So now you know enough to make a few basic things happen in Excel. What happens next depends entirely on your goal. Perhaps you just want to see how easy it is to combine various elements of VBA. Or maybe you're interested in seeing how powerful it can be compared to standard scripting. Whatever you decide there are plenty of resources online to show you more advanced topics.

In this article we're going to focus specifically on writing macros that allow us to trigger events from Excel. First, we'll quickly recap what a macro does. Essentially, it takes a sequence of instructions and performs them accordingly. So far, this sounds pretty much identical to VBA. Nowadays, however, most macros tend to deal with lists of cells instead of single values. This makes it easier to handle multiple situations, especially if you want to change lots of settings.

Can VBA send Gmail?

Let's suppose you had two sheets containing information about flights booked through EasyJet airlines. On sheet 1 you had passenger details, while on sheet 2 you kept track of tickets purchased. At first glance it seems impossible to link these two sets of data together, but with a bit of clever manipulation you could pull it off.

To keep this extremely brief, imagine you were able to hide columns B2 through E2 on Sheet1 and highlight cell R2 only. Then paste in a formula that looks at column G on Sheet2 and returns true if the flight number matches whatever value is currently in R2. Finally, set up a macro which watches for changes made to that highlighted range and sends an email to Easy Jet informing them of ticket purchases. That's right, no human interaction required whatsoever. Sounds complicated? Well, that's essentially what we're doing.

The following video shows the full process step-by-step. Note that although it uses Outlook, the same principles apply to Gmail or any other client.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKMlY5JTQ9E&NR=1

Once everything works correctly, simply save the document as.xla file, click File & Save As, type in a filename ending ".bas", choose Application Workbook (.xlam) format, select your desired location and press OK. Now when you reopen the workbook it should behave almost identically to original version. However, since VBA runs natively on Excel you won't lose access to its many handy buttons etc., so feel free to play around with it until you get familiarised with the system.

One last thing worth mentioning is that you cannot assign keyboard shortcuts to individual portions of code. For instance, you can't tell the macro to listen out for CTRL + S keypresses and execute a piece of code if triggered. Instead, you must give the entire script a unique shortcut key combination. Fortunately, there are several tools available that can help solve this problem. Check our list of five free alternatives to AutoHotkey for starters.

How do I send an automatic email from Excel?

Now that we've tackled the technical side of the question, let's move onto the practicalities. How do you actually set up a macro to send an email? There are two possible solutions depending upon whether or not you already have an existing email account setup.

Solution #1 - Send Email Using SMTP Connection

Assuming you haven't created a personal Hotmail account yet, you'll need to download and install Internet Explorer 9. After installation, navigate to Tools & Connections, scroll down to tab named LAN Settings, expand Security options and check Enable Protected Mode. Click Advanced Options... to reveal more settings. Select 'Send my default greeting' followed by Network security: Use 128-bit encryption. Make sure you leave TCP port 587 unchecked as it's often blocked by ISP firewalls. Next, head back over to Tools & Connections and double click Local Area Connection. Find Protocols section under Network protocols, switch Active connection to Ethernet Metric and fill in fields User Information and Password. Hit Finish and close IE once done.

Next, open Notepad and enter the following line of code:

Dim ieApp

Set ieApp = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")

ieApp.Navigate ("https://outlook.live.com/login?")

While ieApp.Busy: DoEvents: Wend

ieApp.Document.WriteLine ("Username: " & Username & vbCrLf)

ieApp.Document.WriteLine ("Password: " & Password & vbCrLf)

ieApp.Document.WriteLine ("Sign me in!")

ieApp.DialogMode = True

ieApp.Execute ()

Replace "username" and "password" with your actual credentials. Remember to remove unnecessary quotation marks surrounding username and password strings. Paste this snippet anywhere in the body of your preferred application. When ready, hit F5 to refresh the page and watch the magic unfold.

As mentioned above, this method requires you to log into outlook.com with your usual login info. If you prefer to avoid logging in, try Solution #2 below.

Solution #2 - Send Email Without Logging Into Your Account

For anyone who doesn't wish to sign into Outlook.com, there's a quick workaround you can implement. Simply replace the line of code which logs you in with the following:

ieApp.Document.WriteLine ("Please Sign Me In!")

ieApp.DoModal()

This effectively jumps straight past authentication and asks for verification via dialogue box. Of course, this means anyone watching your screen will be able to view your personal information including passwords. Be careful not to provide sensitive data such as credit card information in this manner.

Can I send an Excel macro to someone else?

Yes, you can. All you need to do is export the project as either.exe or.dpx archive formats. If exported as.exe, you can easily transfer the file across networks. Alternatively, if you chose to store the project as an archives (.dpx), you can extract the files individually and place them wherever necessary.

Another important point to note is that you can't edit the contents of the files directly. Rather, you must import them into an empty workbook. Since.xlsx files aren't supported by MS Office 2010 Professional Edition, you'll need to convert archives into.xls files before proceeding. Head to File & Open Worksheet... and browse for the relevant folder. Right click selected file and select Convert to XLS [workbook]. Name the resulting file appropriately and proceed to follow the rest of the steps outlined previously.

Can I share an Excel macro with another user?

Sure. Just export the project as an executable file (either.exce or.dpx), then run the EXE file. If you saved the project as a.xlo file, you'll need to export it as an Archive (.dpx), then drag and drop the appropriate files into an empty workbook, naming the newly generated file according to the original template.

Remember to include the names of both source and destination folders in order for the conversion to complete successfully.

Excel is one of the most popular tools for spreadsheets, but it's not always easy to know how to perform certain tasks on your spreadsheet with macros. One task that often comes up involves sending emails. Whether you want to schedule or automate sending out messages, there are several ways you can go about doing this. We'll show you exactly what you need to do.

In order to get started, download the file below (it has just two sheets). It contains three different methods of sending yourself an automated email via VBA code. The first method sends a message as soon as you open the sheet, while the other two methods will send at scheduled times throughout the week. You may notice some minor differences between these various versions -- each version serves its own purpose. Feel free to try them all!

Once you have downloaded the document, close Excel completely before continuing. You don't need the program running during any of the following steps. Once you're ready to begin, follow along with us through the tutorial.

How do I send an email from a macro in Outlook?

First off, let's take a look at how to send an email when opening a specific worksheet, which uses a simple VB function called Application.SendKeys(). This allows you to type text into the active window without pressing Return. If you've never used Sendkeys(), check out our guide here on finding hidden keys on Windows.

To create this script, head over to Developer " Macros and select New Macro.... Then paste the script below into the body of the Sub.

Next, click Save & Run... Select Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Runtime if prompted. After clicking OK, run the newly-created.vbs file like so:

When asked whether you'd like to continue, choose Yes. A command prompt should pop up asking for confirmation to allow access to your computer. Choose Allow Access Again to proceed.

After agreeing to the request, another command prompt window will appear showing a list of options. Press Y to confirm creation of a shortcut. Finally, press X followed by Enter to return back to the previous screen where you can see your newly created shortcut icon. Double-click it to launch the application.

You should now be able to enter whatever you wish into the blank box inside the Command Prompt window. Type something random like "Hello World" and hit Enter to test it out. When you're done entering commands, simply close the Command Prompt window. Your changes within the app itself won't disappear until you exit the program entirely.

Finally, save the file with File " Properties " General Options " Protection Settings set to No password required. Otherwise, someone could easily edit it and change things around. Make sure no passwords exist either. Head to Home > Office Backgrounds & Sounds and uncheck Show background sounds.

Now that everything is complete, save the file again. Right-click on the file name and then select Create Instance From Current Project.... Use the Open command to browse to wherever the file is stored and double-click on it. This opens the project containing the script above. Go down to Tools " References and make sure AutoExecute is checked under Controls. Now, right-click anywhere in the editor pane and select View Code.

Head to Insert " Module and drag the subroutine onto the form. Click once more to highlight it, then press F5 to execute the procedure. Try changing the Hello World text to anything else and hitting F9 to refresh the page. What happens next depends upon your system because it does require Internet Explorer to fully load properly. However, after execution, the website should reload automatically to display the updated text.

This part isn't necessary, but it helps visualize what you would actually need to put into place in order to send an email manually. To remove this functionality, navigate to Edit " Find/Replace and erase both instances of the word Document.

Can we send an email by using macro?

The second way to send an email from a macro relies on the Mail object in Excel. Instead of using the SendKeys() function, however, you must construct an entire email string including subject, recipient(s), and content. In addition, you also need to include attachments.

We found that creating this much information was too complicated for beginners who aren't familiar with coding. For those kinds of users, we recommend starting with the simpler first example below instead.

Here's a breakdown of the process involved in setting up the code:

Create a new column for today’s date

Input a formula that multiplies days_in_year*7 in the cell

Select cells C2:C10 and copy them across

Change references of formulas in copied range to refer to their respective copies

Press Ctrl + Shift + N to bring up the Quick Analysis toolbox

Click Design Mode button (top left) and select UserForm

Double-click the userform1 title bar to open properties panel

Set Name property to “UserForm1″

Check Form border option

Enter desired dimensions

Open the Workbook where you’ll embed the macro

Go to Sheet tab

Choose ActiveWindow.SelectedTab.Name = “Sheet1″

From the main Ribbon, go to Review Tab

Find Email menu item

Right-click on it and select Format Control…

A dropdown menu should appear

Scroll to bottom of menu items

Highlight Message field

Select Text Box 1 from control type selection menu

Type Subject

Add line breaks and spaces to format message

Paste contents of clipboard directly into preconfigured text box

Hit Enter twice to trigger autoformatting

Go to Data tab

Drag Selection rectangle cursor onto top half of Sheets("Data")[a4].Range("$D$6").Value entry

From the ribbon, select Formulas

Delete D6 reference by highlighting it and selecting Delete

Close dialog box

Save changes

Navigate to Developer " Macros and insert this code into the module area:

Option ExplicitOn Error Resume NextDim oMail Dim strBody As StringConst SUCCESSMESSAGE = vbNewLine & _"Your message sent successfully!"""Sub Main() Set oApp = GetObject("c:\temp\outlook.exe") With oApp.CreateItem(0) Set oMessage =.GetAttachmentsWithstrBody= """"& """",, True, FalseEnd With.Display'Display the messageoMessage.attachments.add ("c:\temp\attachment.txt","message attachment")Do While Not (.Items.Count)= 0 Do.View end If MsgBox ("Are you satisfied?", vbYesNo) = vbNoThen Exit Do End If ElseIf Err.Number = 429 Then On Error goto cleanupExit Functioncleanup:Set objAtt = NothingSet objFSO = NothingSet colFiles = NothingEnd IfErr.ClearEnd IfEnd IfEnd Sub

It might seem daunting, but it gets easier with time! By learning how to write a basic loop in VBA, you can add additional functions later on. At least give the basic version a shot and understand why it doesn't work.

For instance, this particular error occurs when trying to attach files greater than 50 MB. Unfortunately, this means that even though you can technically attach large files, they tend to fail sometimes. Thus, you should stick to smaller ones unless absolutely necessary.

As mentioned earlier, if you prefer to skip writing code altogether, check out these third party solutions that offer similar capabilities. They provide many useful features such as scheduling, HTML formatting, and more.

How do you send an automatic email from Excel to Outlook?

Last but certainly not least, if you still feel comfortable enough to tackle this last step, consider automating the whole thing by utilizing a scheduler. There are lots of great apps available that handle scheduling emails. Here's one good example of a service that lets you schedule outgoing mail with just a few clicks.

Although it requires a paid subscription, you only pay $19 per month ($18 plus applicable taxes) which is significantly cheaper than paying per hour rates from companies like Google Workspace.

Let's say you wanted to send an email every Friday afternoon at 4PM. All you'd have to do is create a rule for it in Gmail to forward incoming emails to your chosen service. Then, assign it a due day and time. For example, Monday through Thursday is 11AM - 3PM, Friday is 5PM - 7PM, and Saturday and Sunday are 9AM - 10PM.

By default, the service forwards the message to a generic address like [email protected] and adds the original sender's contact info. That said, you can customize this if you want. Simply head to Preferences and adjust settings accordingly.

How do you use macros in email?

Macro-enabled Word documents are nothing new, but now you can incorporate this feature into Excel as well. Take advantage of the power of automation and learn how to integrate VBA into your workflow like a true pro.

If you're like me, then when you think about macros for Microsoft Office applications, your mind goes straight to VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). But there are other ways that macros can be useful -- especially those written with C++ or Visual Studio's.NET framework. In this article I will show how to use these tools to create automated processes in Excel that can send an email.

It turns out that if you have some programming experience, it is possible to write simple Excel macros to automate tasks such as sending an email. However, it isn't always clear whether this should be done through VBA or not. Here are three practical scenarios where writing an Excel macro could save time over manually typing out formulas or creating shortcuts on the ribbon menu.

In each case below, we'll take advantage of one of the simplest types of code available in both C++ (.exe) and Visual Studio.NET projects. This is what makes them easy to understand and debug even without any prior knowledge of either language!

How do I send automatic emails in Outlook?

One scenario might involve someone entering information into columns A, B and C of spreadsheet "Sheet1" shown below. The first two rows contain standard names followed by email addresses, while column D contains a unique ID number which needs to be assigned to every entry. Finally, the last row shows the total amount of items entered so far.

When completed, the user just has to click OK and enter their name and email address. For example, Bob Smith would type his details into cells A2 and A3 along with smithbob@gmail.com. When they're ready, all he'd need to do is click Send Email at the bottom right corner of the screen.

This process works fine until hundreds of people start adding entries during peak traffic periods. It also requires several minutes per person to complete because each individual must fill out the entire form before clicking Send Email. If anyone forgets to add in their ID number then additional forms may get sent out to different recipients. What we want here is to schedule automation of this task to run overnight after everyone has finished working.

So let's say our IT department wants us to check who hasn't submitted their IDs yet. To accomplish this task, we'll set up a macro to monitor the sheet for changes and send an alert via email whenever something gets added or deleted. We'll call it CheckForms.xlsm file.

First, open the Tools dropdown box under File and select Macro Manager. Then choose Record Macros... At the top left of the dialog window, make sure Active Workbook refers to Sheet1 and Entering Data refers to whatever the header text says. Click Ok.

Now press F5 to activate running the macro. After a few moments, you'll see the following message appear in your Command Prompt/DOS Shell. You'll notice that only cell range E8:E15 was changed because this corresponds to the final row containing the count of numbers still missing ID assignments. Next, we need to change the formula slightly to include everything.

To avoid confusion later, we'll insert an extra space between the word Count and the dollar sign ($COUNT(A9)). Once you've made the adjustment, press Ctrl+S to Save Changes, close down the editor, and exit Word. Now go back to Excel.

Your macro should now detect when anything happens within the active sheet. Whenever something gets inserted or removed, the script checks the values in Columns A & B & C against the ones listed above. If there are discrepancies, another command line appears showing the error number and a description of why things went wrong.

Here's what happened when I tried deleting Row 3. Notice my previous commands were saved in \Desktop\ExcelMacroTest\macros\CheckForms.xml.

I clicked Stop Recording, edited the original batch file to delete Row 3, and renamed it DeleteRowThree.bat. All I had to do was double-click this file and Run As Administrator.

You'll receive the same response for adding any more than four lines. So don't try to cram too many cases into the script unless you really know what you're doing. Otherwise, you won't be able to tell exactly what went wrong.

Once you have your own scripts worked out, you can assign keyboard shortcut keys to trigger certain actions. For instance, pressing Alt + H will hide all sheets except the current one. Or perhaps you can assign Alt + G to quickly view the Form Controls section of the Ribbon.

As long as you remember to keep track of what functions to record, recording macros becomes much easier once you've mastered basic concepts like loop structures, conditional statements, etc. And since you aren't actually coding in VBScript or.Net languages, it's easier to troubleshoot problems.

Click Start Debugging and watch the output pop up in the Command Window. Press F10 to continue execution until completion. Alternatively, you can step through the code line by line with F11. When you reach the end of your program, you'll see an End Sub statement displayed.

How do I send email from Excel macro to Gmail?

Next, consider a situation where your company has its own Exchange server but doesn't offer IMAP access to users' accounts. Perhaps your network administrator locked down mailboxes due to security reasons. In this case, you can turn to third party software called Mail Transfer Agent Pro (MTAPro) [No Longer Available] to allow remote mailbox connections. MTAPro provides POP3 and SMTP services for connecting to Windows Live Hotmail.

Using this software, we'll convert our existing Excel macros to perform auto-emails instead of alerts. First off, copy and paste your recorded macro onto a blank Worksheet inside the MTAPro installation folder. Rename the file to match the location of your original Excel document. Make sure to replace Shee1 with whichever name matches your actual spreadsheet name.

Back in Excel, edit the original script so that it uses the filename associated with the converted macro. Change the reference to Set WshShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Application") to Set WshShell = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}").ExecQuery _ ("select * from Win32_MailProfile").Item(0)....Then adjust the rest of the script according to your needs.

Finally, click Build Project and then Install Program. Your new application will reside in My Computer -" My Documents-" mtapro-" directory. Double-clicking on the executable will launch MTAPro. From here, simply configure the settings on the General tab, including Account Name, Password, Port Number and Enable SSL. On the Administrative Tab, ensure Display User List is checked.

Under the Advanced Settings tab, enable AutoStart, specify Startup Type and Select Language. Under Security Options, disable Use Authentication Method and leave Password Encryption selected. Lastly, under System Configuration, select Internet Access Provider and give it a meaningful label. Leave Protocol set to default value of 0 and IP Address empty.

After making appropriate adjustments, go ahead and test the app. Launch the MTAPro icon located in your computer's system tray and input your account info into the configuration panel. Hit Execute Script and wait for the email to come into your inbox. Just for testing purposes, we'll send the email to ourselves at bobsmith@exchange.company.com.

Can a macro send an email from Excel?

The next question is whether a macro can generate an email itself. Let's suppose we wanted to force a user to reenter their password before being allowed to logon again. Instead of having to manually key in the old password, we could write a small script that forces the user to input a new password twice.

We'll create a separate VBA project called ForceResetPassword.vbs, copy and paste the contents of the script into Notepad, and place the resulting.exe file in a convenient location. To execute the file, simply double-click on the.exe file and follow the prompts. The program will eventually ask for confirmation to terminate. Accept this request and your PC will reboot.

To prevent further attempts at forcing a password reset, head to Control Panel -" System -" Administration -" Services -" Remote Desktop Connection and stop the service.

With these modifications applied, we can now create a script that does pretty much the exact thing we originally intended to do in Step 2. Copy and paste the following script into Cell A6 of the sheet named ResetPasswrd.xls.

Sub Main()

Dim WshShell

Set WshShell = GetObject("Winmgmts:" & _

""{impersonationLevel="impersonate"}")

On Error Resume Next

Do While True

InputBox("Enter New Password", "Change Pass")

Select Case InputBox("New Password Length?", "Length")

Case Is = 6

WshShell.exec ""c:\temp\ForceResetPasword.cmd""

End Select

Loop

End Sub

Go to View -" Quick Analysis to verify the script runs properly.