Reply to an Email With a Template

At work we get many emails that could be responded with a template. It's evident that you can save a lot of time if there's a template you can send. This sample shows how that works. You can either reply to the opened email or to the selected one in the folder.

The following first function determines the subject and the message. The main function that will create the reply will be called with these values. If you want to use several templates this way, simply copy the Reply_1 function, and give each function any unique name.

(There is a similar function that uses templates stored in the Drafts folder)

  How to add macros to Outlook

Public Sub Reply_1()
  Dim Subject As String, Msg As String

  Subject = "Re: "
  Msg = "Sample Message 1"

  ReplyMail Subject, Msg
End Sub

The following function is necessary only once. This one creates the reply with the passed values for the subject and the message.

Private Sub ReplyMail(Subject As String, Msg As String)
  Dim obj As Object
  Dim oReply As Outlook.MailItem

  If TypeOf Application.ActiveWindow Is Outlook.Inspector Then
    Set obj = Application.ActiveInspector.CurrentItem
  Else
    With Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection
      If .Count Then
        Set obj = .Item(1)
      End If
    End With
  End If

  If obj Is Nothing Then Exit Sub

  If TypeOf obj Is Outlook.MailItem Then
    Set oReply = obj.Reply
    If InStr(1, oReply.Subject, Subject, vbTextCompare) = 0 Then
      oReply.Subject = Subject & obj.Subject
      oReply.Body = Msg & vbCRLF & vbCRLF & oReply.Body
    End If
    oReply.Display
  End If
End Sub