Setting a Bulk Message Delay

Yesterday, while reading tweets, I stumbled across this one from ~R4~:

#Outlook folks out there: Is there a way to ‘bulk delay delivery’? Save outgoing email in a folder & autosend all email at specific time?

Outlook has the ability to set a message to go out on a specific date at a specific time, but that is set on a per message basis. There is no built-in way of setting Outlook to delay all messages unless you want to take the time to set a delay on each one. That would be tedious and the tedium would grow in direct proportion to the number of messages you want to send. It also would not work for a mail merge since the merge process sends the items immediately. One possible solution is to set Outlook to work off-line, then send messages. With Outlook working off-line the messages would accumulate in the outbox until such time as you allow Outlook to reconnect. The problem with this solution is that you can’t send or receive anything else because that would mean reconnecting Outlook which would immediately send the messages waiting in the outbox.

The solution then is to employ a macro to set the delay for you. The logic for this is straightforward. Use a switch to toggle delaying on/off. When delaying is toggled on the macro asks for the time/date to delay until. As messages are sent the macro checks to see if delaying is on. If it is, then the item is automatically set to wait until the specified time. If delaying is off, then nothing occurs.

With this macro in place ~R4~ can toggle delaying on, send a batch of messages that will be delayed, then toggle delaying off and continue sending and receiving normally. No need to take Outlook off-line.

The code for this comes in two parts.

Part 1.

Instructions.

1. Start Outlook
2. Press ALT+F11 to open Outlook’s VB editor
3. If not already expanded, expand Project1
4. Right-click Class Modules and select Insert > Class Module
5. In the Properties panel click on Name and enter BulkDelayManager
6. Copy the code from the Code Snippet box and paste it into the right-hand pane of Outlook’s VB Editor window
7. Click the diskette icon on the toolbar to save the changes

Private bolBulkDelay As Boolean, _
        datBulkDelaySendAt As Date, _
        intDelay As Integer
Private WithEvents olkApp As Outlook.Application

Private Sub Class_Initialize()
    'On the next line enter the number of seconds to delay messages for if you want all messages to be delayed for a fixed amount of time.  Enter 0 if you want to be prompted for the date/time to delay until.'
    intDelay = 0
    bolBulkDelay = False
    Set olkApp = Outlook.Application
End Sub

Private Sub Class_Terminate()
    Set olkApp = Nothing
End Sub

Public Sub Toggle()
    bolBulkDelay = Not bolBulkDelay
    If intDelay = 0 Then
        If bolBulkDelay Then
            datBulkDelaySendAt = InputBox("Enter the date/time that messages will be delayed until.", "Set Bulk Delay Time", Format(Now(), "mm/dd/yy hh:nn AMPM"))
            If Not IsDate(datBulkDelaySendAt) Then
                bolBulkDelay = False
            End If
        End If
    End If
    msgbox "Bulk Delaying is now " & IIf(bolBulkDelay, " on.", " off."), vbInformation + vbOKOnly, "Bulk Delay Manager"
End Sub

Private Sub olkApp_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
    If bolBulkDelay Then
        If intDelay = 0 Then
            Item.DeferredDeliveryTime = datBulkDelaySendAt
        Else
            Item.DeferredDeliveryTime = DateAdd("s", intDelay, Now)
        End If
        Item.Save
    End If
End Sub

Part 2.

Instructions.

1. If not already expanded, expand Microsoft Office Outlook Objects and click on ThisOutlookSession
2. Copy the code snippet below and paste it into the right-hand pane of Outlook’s VB Editor window
3. Click the diskette icon on the toolbar to save the changes
4. Close the VB Editor
5. Open the Trust Center
6. Click Macro Security
7. Set Macro Security to “Warnings for all macros”
8. Click OK
9. Click the File tab.
10. Click Options > Quick Access Toolbar.
11. In the list under Choose commands from:, choose Macros. Find and select Project1.ThisOutlookSession.Toggle
12. Click the Add button to add the macro, and then click the Modify… button to select a button image to associate with the macro.
13. Click OK. You should see your new button on the Quick Access Toolbar above the File tab.
14. Close Outlook
15. Start Outlook. Outlook will display a dialog-box warning that ThisOutlookSession contains macros and asking if you want to allow them to run. Say yes.

Dim clsBDM As BulkDelayManager

Private Sub Application_Startup()
    Set clsBDM = New BulkDelayManager
End Sub

Private Sub Application_Quit()
    Set clsBDM = Nothing
End Sub

Sub ToggleBDM()
    clsBDM.Toggle
End Sub

Usage.

When ~R4~ wants to delay messages he will click the button on the Quick Access Toolbar. This will run the macro which will prompt him for the date/time to delay to, then toggle delaying on. Messages will now be delayed until he clicks the button again and turns delaying off.

Notes.

1. This is a proof-of-concept macro designed to show that this can be done. The code as is does not do everything that a full solution would, such as check to make sure the date entered is valid. The macro is usable, but you could run into problems.
2. This code is intended exclusively for Outlook 2010.
3. The instructions may be slightly off. I do not have access to a copy of Outlook 2010 at the moment and could not check them to ensure they are correct.
4. I have not tested the code under Outlook 2010. I tested the general process on Outlook 2007 and it worked fine there.

Change History.

• 2011.07.20 – Added the ability to set a static delay (in seconds) in lieu of being prompted each time an item is sent.