Outlook VBA - Select Sender Account when "New Email" is created - vba

Question

I'm using Outlook set up with a number of accounts (both POP and IMAP). When writing a new email I can obviously change which account is used to send the email by clicking the "From" button and selecting the appropriate account. However, I often forget to do this and the email then gets sent from the default account.
What I would like to be able to do is to trap the creation of the new email and display a form with radio buttons listing all the accounts so that the correct sender account can be selected before the email is drafted.
I can create the form with the list of accounts and which will return the selected account. I can also trap the creation of a new email with the Inspectors_NewInspector event but I am having problems when trying the set the Sender account.
I have tried the following code (in ThisOutlookSession) using the SendUsingAccount property but the code flags up an error saying that the property is read-only. Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Option Explicit
Private WithEvents objInspectors As Outlook.Inspectors
Private Sub Application_Startup()
Set objInspectors = Application.Inspectors
End Sub
Private Sub objInspectors_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Inspector)
Dim oEmail As Outlook.MailItem
If TypeName(Inspector.CurrentItem) = "MailItem" Then
Set oEmail = Inspector.CurrentItem
Set oEmail.SendUsingAccount = GetUserSelectedInput '<<<<gives error 440 - property is read-only
End If
End Sub
Private Function GetUserSelectedInput() As Account
Dim oNs As Outlook.NameSpace
Set oNs = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
'The following line is selecting an arbitrary account for testing purposes
'this will be replaced with the code to call a userform
'that will return the selected account
Set GetUserSelectedInput = oNs.Accounts.Item(2)
End Function

Answer 1

First of all, the Inspectors.NewInspector event is not the right place for accessing the mail item object. The event occurs after the new Inspector object is created but before the inspector window appears. So, I'd suggest waiting for the Inspector.Activate event which is fired when an inspector becomes the active window, either as a result of user action or through program code.
You may find the Implement a wrapper for inspectors and track item-level events in each inspector article helpful.
Second, the MailItem.SendUsingAccount property allows to set an Account object that represents the account under which the MailItem is to be sent. For example, a VBA sample code shows how to set up the property:
Sub SendUsingAccount()
Dim oAccount As Outlook.account
For Each oAccount In Application.Session.Accounts
If oAccount.AccountType = olPop3 Then
Dim oMail As Outlook.MailItem
Set oMail = Application.CreateItem(olMailItem)
oMail.Subject = "Sent using POP3 Account"
oMail.Recipients.Add ("someone#example.com")
oMail.Recipients.ResolveAll
Set oMail.SendUsingAccount = oAccount
oMail.Send
End If
Next
End Sub

Answer 2

I tried using the Inspector.Activate event and still had the same problem with the SendUsingAccount property being read only. I also tried using the MailIem.Open event and still the property errors as read only.
I then modified the code to Save the email before attempting to write to the SendUsingAccount property and that works, However, I'm not completely happy that it's a particularly elegant solution since it forces the email to be saved as a draft. What I can't understand is what "state" the email is in prior to the Save and whether there's another solution where the SendUsingAccount can be changed without doing the Save.
The code I'm currently using is shown below. Any comments would be welcomed.
Option Explicit
Private WithEvents objInspectors As Outlook.Inspectors
Private WithEvents objEmail As Outlook.MailItem
Public Sub test()
Set objInspectors = Application.Inspectors
End Sub
Private Sub Application_Startup()
Set objInspectors = Application.Inspectors
End Sub
Private Sub objInspectors_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Inspector)
If TypeOf Inspector.CurrentItem Is Outlook.MailItem Then
If Len(Inspector.CurrentItem.EntryID) = 0 Then
Set objEmail = Inspector.CurrentItem
End If
End If
End Sub
Private Sub objEmail_Open(Cancel As Boolean)
Dim objAcc As Outlook.Account
With objEmail
Set objAcc = GetUserSelectedInput()
If objAcc Is Nothing Then
Cancel = True
Else
.Save
.SendUsingAccount = objAcc
End If
End With
Set objAcc = Nothing
Set objEmail = Nothing
End Sub
Private Function GetUserSelectedInput() As Outlook.Account
Dim oNs As Outlook.NameSpace
Set oNs = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
'The following line is selecting an arbitrary account for testing purposes
'this will be replaced with the code to call a userform
'that will return the selected account
Set GetUserSelectedInput = oNs.Accounts.Item(3)
End Function

Answer 3

OK, that was silly - I was sure that I was getting a read-only error when setting SendUsingAccount property. Thanks niton for pointing out it works without it. So now I have the complete solution and it's working as required. For those that are interested, the complete code is listed below. It requires a simple form ("SelectAccount") which has a frame ("frmeOptionButtons") and two buttons ("btnOk" & "btnCancel") below the frame. The frame and form will resize depending on the number of accounts. It relies on using the form.tag property to pass a default account address when the form is opened and the selected address when OK is clicked.
The code for ThisOutlookSession is:
Option Explicit
Private WithEvents objInspectors As Outlook.Inspectors
Private WithEvents objEmail As Outlook.MailItem
Public Sub test()
Set objInspectors = Application.Inspectors
End Sub
Private Sub Application_Startup()
Set objInspectors = Application.Inspectors
End Sub
Private Sub objInspectors_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Inspector)
If TypeOf Inspector.CurrentItem Is Outlook.MailItem Then
If Len(Inspector.CurrentItem.EntryID) = 0 Then
Set objEmail = Inspector.CurrentItem
End If
End If
End Sub
Private Sub objEmail_Open(Cancel As Boolean)
Dim objAcc As Outlook.Account
With objEmail
Set objAcc = GetUserSelectedInput(.SendUsingAccount.SmtpAddress)
If objAcc Is Nothing Then
Cancel = True
Else
.SendUsingAccount = objAcc
End If
End With
Set objAcc = Nothing
Set objEmail = Nothing
End Sub
Private Function GetUserSelectedInput(DefaultAccount As String) As Outlook.Account
Dim objNs As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim objAcc As Outlook.Account
Dim SelectedAccount As String
With SelectAccount
.tag = LCase(DefaultAccount)
.Show
SelectedAccount = ""
On Error Resume Next 'in case form is closed
SelectedAccount = .tag
On Error GoTo 0
End With
If SelectedAccount = "" Then Exit Function
Set objNs = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
For Each objAcc In objNs.Accounts
If LCase(objAcc.SmtpAddress) = SelectedAccount Then
Set GetUserSelectedInput = objAcc
Exit For
End If
Next
Set objAcc = Nothing
Set objNs = Nothing
End Function
The code for the SelectAccount form is:
Option Explicit
Private Sub btnCancel_Click()
Me.tag = ""
Me.Hide
End Sub
Private Sub btnOk_Click()
Dim optButton As MSForms.OptionButton
Me.tag = ""
For Each optButton In Me.frmeOptionButtons.Controls
If optButton.value Then
Me.tag = optButton.tag
Exit For
End If
Next
Me.Hide
End Sub
Private Sub UserForm_Activate()
Dim optButton As MSForms.OptionButton
Dim NoOfBtns As Integer
Dim CaptionWidth As Long
Dim AccList() As String
Dim DefaulAccount As String
Dim i As Integer
DefaulAccount = LCase(Me.tag)
AccList = GetAccountList
NoOfBtns = UBound(AccList)
Me.btnOk.top = Me.frmeOptionButtons.top + (NoOfBtns) * 18 + 4
Me.btnCancel.top = Me.btnOk.top
Me.Height = Me.btnOk.top + Me.btnOk.Height + 36
With Me.frmeOptionButtons
.Height = NoOfBtns * 18 + 2
For Each optButton In .Controls
.Controls.Remove (optButton.Name)
Next
CaptionWidth = .Width - 4
For i = 1 To NoOfBtns
Set optButton = .Controls.Add("Forms.OptionButton.1")
With optButton
.left = 0
.top = 18 * (i - 1)
.Height = 18
.Width = CaptionWidth
.tag = LCase(AccList(i))
.Caption = AccList(i)
.value = (.tag = DefaulAccount)
End With
Next
End With
End Sub
Private Function GetAccountList() As Variant
Dim objNs As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim objAcc As Outlook.Account
Dim strAcc() As String
Dim i As Integer
Set objNs = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
i = 0
For Each objAcc In objNs.Accounts
i = i + 1
ReDim Preserve strAcc(i)
strAcc(i) = objAcc.SmtpAddress
Next
GetAccountList = strAcc
Set objAcc = Nothing
Set objNs = Nothing
End Function