Special Edition Using® Microsoft® Office Outlook® 2003

VBA Basics

There are a few basic concepts you need to know in order to program in VBA. Variables are used to store temporary data. Object variables are used to reference objects such as the Outlook Application object, the MailItem object, or a Reminder object.

A procedure is a named set of instructions that's executed as a unit. There are two main types of procedures you'll use in VBA: subs and functions. A sub is generally a procedure that does not return a value. You might change variable values or perform actions, but the actual set of commands does not produce an ending value. A typical Outlook VBA sub might look like the following:

 Sub SendMail() Dim olItem As Outlook.MailItem Set olItem = Application.CreateItem(olMailItem) olItem.To = ...