VBA to format selected text in Outlook - vba

Question

I want to highlight text in an email and format it to font consolas and indent it once.
I have tried this but get an error:
Sub Code()
Selection.Font.Name = "Consolas"
Selection.Paragraphs.Indent
End Sub
Run-time error '429':
ActiveX component can't create object

Answer 1

You can use WordEditor to edit selected text in mail:
Private Sub Code()
' Mail must be in edit mode - compose, reply, forward
' If reading mail then under Actions | Edit Message
' Select some text
Dim objDoc As Object
Dim objSel As Object
Set objDoc = ActiveInspector.WordEditor
Set objSel = objDoc.Windows(1).Selection
objSel.Font.name = "Consolas"
objSel.Paragraphs.Indent
End Sub
Code with validations:
Sub FormatSelection()
' With extra validation for troubleshooting
' Code in Outlook
' Mail must be in edit mode - compose, reply, forward
' If reading mail then under Actions | Edit Message
' Select some text
Dim myInspector As Inspector
Dim myObject As Object
Dim myItem As mailItem
Dim myDoc As Word.Document
Dim mySelection As Word.Selection
Set myInspector = ActiveInspector
If myInspector Is Nothing Then
MsgBox "No inspector. Open a mailitem and select some text."
GoTo ExitRoutine
End If
If myInspector.EditorType <> olEditorWord Then
'https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vba/outlook-vba/articles/oleditortype-enumeration-outlook
' olEditorWord / 4 / Microsoft Office Word editor
Debug.Print "EditorType: " & myInspector.EditorType
MsgBox "Editor is not Microsoft Office Word editor"
GoTo ExitRoutine
End If
' Probably not needed. EditorType should be enough
'If myInspector.IsWordMail = False Then
' MsgBox "myInspector.IsWordMail = False"
' GoTo ExitRoutine
'End If
On Error Resume Next
Set myObject = myInspector.currentItem
On Error GoTo 0
If myObject Is Nothing Then
MsgBox "Open a mailitem and select some text."
GoTo ExitRoutine
End If
If myObject.MessageClass = "IPM.Note" Then
'Should be equivalent to If myObject.Class = olMail Then
Set myItem = myObject
Set myDoc = myInspector.WordEditor
Set mySelection = myDoc.Application.Selection
Debug.Print "Selected text is: " & mySelection
MsgBox "Selected text is: " & vbCr & vbCr & mySelection
mySelection.Font.name = "Consolas"
mySelection.Paragraphs.Indent
Else
MsgBox "Not a mailitem. Open a mailitem and select some text."
GoTo ExitRoutine
End If
ExitRoutine:
Set myInspector = Nothing
Set myObject = Nothing
Set myItem = Nothing
Set myDoc = Nothing
Set mySelection = Nothing
End Sub

Answer 2

Looks like you are trying to mix the Word object model with Outlook. The Selection class in Outlook is not the same as the Selection class from the Word object model. Moreover, there is no such shortcuts in Outlook. You must retrieve it each time you need it.
The Outlook object model provides three main ways for working with item bodies:
The Body property. A raw text.
The HTMLBody property. The body is represented by the html markup.
The Word object model. The WordEditor property of the Inspector class returns and instance of the Word Document class which represents the body.
You can read more about this in the Chapter 17: Working with Item Bodies article in MSDN. It describes all these properties in depth.