Automating Outlook Calendar to Send Daily Agenda

Make my agenda come to me…

I love the quote from the overly-ambitious Senator Underwood in “House of Cards.” He was talking to Freddy, a blue-collar owner of a restaurant. Freddy was telling him about his ride to work when he had to swerve to avoid a refrigerator that fell out of the back of a truck onto the road. Frank Underwood looked at the camera and said, “See, that’s where Freddy and I are different. I expect the refrigerator to swerve to get out of my way – not the other way around!”

What does this have to do with my calendar? Well it’s a stretch but first thing in the morning I usually go to Outlook and pull up my calendar to see what my agenda looks like. Recently I decided my calendar should come to me instead. So I decided to configure my system to send me an itinerary each morning.

It’s easier than it sounds. Start by simply creating a VBS script file on your local drive. VBS files are instructions to Outlook to email your calendar. Then, using Windows Scheduler, set up a task to run the file each morning.

Here’s How

1. Create a text file on your C: Drive and rename it to ’emailCalendar.vbs’. Make sure the extension is “.VBS” and not “.txt.” Then copy and paste the script below into the file. Also make sure you put your actual email address on the 3rd line.

Code

' -------------------------------------------------
' Modify this \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Const myEmailAddress = "MyEmailAddress@me.com"
Const includePrivateDetails = True
Const howManyDaysToDisplay = 1
' Modify this /////////////////////////////////////
' -------------------------------------------------
Const olCalendarMailFormatDailySchedule = 0
Const olFreeBusyAndSubject = 1
Const olFullDetails = 2
Const olFolderCalendar = 9
SendCalendar myEmailAddress, Date, (Date + (howManyDaysToDisplay - 1))
Sub SendCalendar(strAdr, datBeg, datEnd)
Dim olkApp, olkSes, olkCal, olkExp, olkMsg
Set olkApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set olkSes = OlkApp.GetNameSpace("MAPI")
olkSes.Logon olkApp.DefaultProfileName
Set olkCal = olkSes.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderCalendar)
Set olkExp = olkCal.GetCalendarExporter
With olkExp
.CalendarDetail = olFreeBusyAndSubject
.IncludePrivateDetails = includePrivateDetails
.RestrictToWorkingHours = False
.StartDate = datBeg
.EndDate = datEnd
End With
Set olkMsg = olkExp.ForwardAsICal(olCalendarMailFormatDailySchedule)
With olkMsg
.To = strAdr
.Send
End With
Set olkCal = Nothing
Set olkExp = Nothing
Set olkMsg = Nothing
olkSes.Logoff
Set olkSes = Nothing
Set olkApp = Nothing
End Sub

2. From your Windows Start button, type in ‘Task Scheduler’ and enter. Then when the program launches, select Action and “Create a Basic Task” from the menu.
3. Give your task a name, click next, then follow the rest of the instructions below. Then when you get to Program Name, find the .VBS file that you just created in Step 1.
   
   

That’s it! Each morning you will get a slick-looking email with your agenda for the day or day(s). Also, this will be helpful if you need to share your day with a boss or coworker!

Update (February 2019)

Q:  Help, I’m getting a pop-up window in Outlook asking how I want to run this program and the email does not send.

A:   The pop up window that you are describing could be a result of an Antivirus software package loaded on your computer.  This might be preventing email automations.  Also check the Outlook Trust Center options and experiment by adjusting those options.  Future security releases of Outlook and or Windows could potentially disable the ability for this program to work as expected.

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