assigning macros to keystrokes

[Peter K]

In previous versions of Office, with Word being available as Outlook word
processor, I had no problems using about twelve macros assigned to key
strokes. These are mainly the German Umlaute, ae, oe, etc but also symbols
for degree F or C. I had no problem transferring these macros from Office
XPs file normal.dot to Office 2007s normal.dotm & all macros work as designed
in Word 2007.

I also got the macros successfully copied int NormalEmail.dotm, however,
they do not execute with the keystrokes I use. Nor can I find any procedure
to assign keystrokes to macros in Outlook.

How can I get back to using these macros in Outlook?

 

[F. H. Muffman]

In previous versions of Office, with Word being available as Outlook word
processor, I had no problems using about twelve macros assigned to key
strokes. These are mainly the German Umlaute, ae, oe, etc but also
symbols
for degree F or C. I had no problem transferring these macros from Office
XPs file normal.dot to Office 2007s normal.dotm & all macros work as
designed
in Word 2007.

I also got the macros successfully copied int NormalEmail.dotm, however,
they do not execute with the keystrokes I use. Nor can I find any
procedure
to assign keystrokes to macros in Outlook.

How can I get back to using these macros in Outlook?

You didn't mention: Did you upgrade to Outlook 2007 as well, or just the
rest of Office? (not all versions of Office come with Outlook, so I figured
I'd make sure)

 

[Peter K]

I have Office 2007 Professional, which includes Outlook.

 

[Peter K]

Does anyone know how to asign macros to shortcut keystrokes in Outlook 2007?

Any help would be appreciated

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Same way as in all previous versions -- put the macro on the toolbar and assign an accelerator key to it. In Outlook 2007, of course, that only works with the main Outlook window's toolbars.

 

[Peter K]

Sory, but I cannot find any way to assign keystrokes to macros in Outlook
2007. In Word, I right click on the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT), select
Customize & the window opening is 'Customize QAT and keyboard shortcuts',
with a customize button for keyboard shortcuts at the bottom of the page.

Not so in Outlook. The window opening on customizing the QAT does not
include keyboard shortcuts.

I have extensively searched in Outlook 2007 help for customizing keyboard
shortcuts, no luck.

I have put one shortcut onto the main window toolbar, no indication how to
assign a keystroke to that either. It would also be pretty unwieldy to put
12 to 15 buttons for macros either onto the main window toolbars or onto the
QAT.

Peter K

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Sorry, I made the assumption, mistakenly, that you wanted to add a macro to the main Outlook window, not the QAT. I don't know any way to add a keystroke to the QAT. On the main Outlook window, you modify the button caption to put a & character before the character you want to use as an Alt+ hotkey.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

Sory, but I cannot find any way to assign keystrokes to macros in Outlook
2007. In Word, I right click on the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT), select
Customize & the window opening is 'Customize QAT and keyboard shortcuts',
with a customize button for keyboard shortcuts at the bottom of the page.

Not so in Outlook. The window opening on customizing the QAT does not
include keyboard shortcuts.

I have extensively searched in Outlook 2007 help for customizing keyboard
shortcuts, no luck.

I have put one shortcut onto the main window toolbar, no indication how to
assign a keystroke to that either. It would also be pretty unwieldy to put
12 to 15 buttons for macros either onto the main window toolbars or onto the
QAT.

Peter K

 

[Peter K]

Thxs for your reply.

I don't really care whether I have any of those macros on a toolbar & where.
That's a nuisance to me. All I want, is do what I have done since about
1990, i.e. before Outlook ever came about: When typing in Word processors or
in an email application, I want about 12 (before I was retired, about 25)
macros, so that, for instance, when I type 'Alt & e' I get the Euro symbol in
my text. (That macro itself is, of course much more recent.) I did it in
Word Perfect & an email application from Australia or New Zealand in the
early 90s. I switched to Word with Office 95 & to Outlook the latest with
Office 97, I think earlier.

All I had to do, was record the macros & assign the keyboeard shortcuts.

With Office 2007 (I've been with the beta program, so I have run it since
spring of 2006 and in general find an excellent package) that became a
problem. In Word I can still do it, but appparently not in Outlook. If that
is so, I will definitely launch a complaint somewhere in the MS hierarchy.

Now, you indicated that if I put the macros onto a toolbar in the main
window (a nuisance to me, but I will do it if necessary) and name it '&e',
then I can invoke it in an email by typing 'alt e'?

I tried that, but, it did not work.

Peter K

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Now, you indicated that if I put the macros onto a toolbar in the main

window (a nuisance to me, but I will do it if necessary) and name it '&e',
then I can invoke it in an email by typing 'alt e'?

No, that's not what I meant. Accelerator keys work only in the window where the toolbar button/menu command is visible. There is no way to do what you want to do. Outlook has never had the ability to assign keyboard shortcuts to macros other than through toolbar/menu accelerator characters. As I'm sure you know, what you used before was part of Word, not Outlook. If you have a retail version of Office/Outlook 2007, you could file a support incident on this issue. This is the best way to let Microsoft know that there's a problem with the application. Unlimited support for Office/Outlook 2007 is free for the first 90 days after activation. See http://support.microsoft.com/gp/vista_supoffnew for more information on this support policy.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

 

[Brian Tillman]

I don't really care whether I have any of those macros on a toolbar &
where. That's a nuisance to me. All I want, is do what I have done
since about 1990, i.e. before Outlook ever came about: When typing
in Word processors or in an email application, I want about 12
(before I was retired, about 25) macros, so that, for instance, when
I type 'Alt & e' I get the Euro symbol in my text. (That macro
itself is, of course much more recent.) I did it in Word Perfect &
an email application from Australia or New Zealand in the early 90s.
I switched to Word with Office 95 & to Outlook the latest with Office
97, I think earlier.

Perhaps this tool would be of help, then: http://allchars.zwolnet.com/

 

[Peter K]

Thxs. So, at least we now know, it's no longer possible. Of course, I
realized that I worked with the Word editor, which one had to specify as an
option.

I'm not sure I have a 'retail' version of Office 2007. I have a post
release legal one, gift from MS as part of the Vista & Office 2007 initiation
hoopla. (I also have three Vista licenses, which I paid for myself.) I'll
pursue that.

I like your book & find it helpful with several other things.

Peter K

 

[Peter K]

Thxs, I'll look at it.

Peter K

Perhaps this tool would be of help, then: http://allchars.zwolnet.com/

 

[RW]

Thxs. So, at least we now know, it's no longer possible. Of course, I
realized that I worked with the Word editor, which one had to specify as an
option.

I'm not sure I have a 'retail' version of Office 2007. I have a post
release legal one, gift from MS as part of the Vista & Office 2007 initiation
hoopla. (I also have three Vista licenses, which I paid for myself.) I'll
pursue that.

I like your book & find it helpful with several other things.

Peter K

 

[RW]

[lost my message first time...]

I'm very grateful you raised this question because I faced exactly the same
thing, & am disappointed I can't use the keyboard macros as I used to.

I also had macros to change word case assigned to a key combination. It
came through fine in Word, but since that's no longer the editor for Outlook,
it doesn't happen there.

One interesting thing. I copied Normal.dotm to NormalEmail.dotm, & it made
my autotext entries accessible. It also made the keyboard macros list, but
they don't work properly in the Outlook editor, and they are macros that are
not assigned to a key combination. Can anyone explain that part?

Shame. I miss this bit. If anyone can get Microsoft's ear on this one, I'd
be very happy, too.

RW

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Unfortunately, Microsoft has not documented what Word features don't work in the Outlook editor. We do know that Word macros are among the features not supported (which makes me wonder why the email template is normalemail.dotm and not normalemail.dotx).

It isn't hard, though, to copy Word macro code into Outlook's email editor and make a few changes to turn that Word macro into an Outlook macro that can be executed from the QAT or with Alt+F8. I've posted some pointers at http://turtleflock-ol2007.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!C1013F1F9A99E3D8!579.entry

 

[RW]

Thanks very much for this! I'll try it (can't today, but will soon).

RW

 

[Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts in Outlook]

I share your frustration. I think the best way to articulate this to MS is
that the failure to allow Outlook users to either select Word as their
Outlook text editor or to permit them to toggle Outlook to utilize Word
assigned keyboard shortcuts is that it leaves users with inconsistent command
structures when performing precisely the same tasks.

Since 1981 I've used the original "WordStar" keyboard shortcuts with all my
text editing programs. I've found no other shortcuts that are easier for
fast touch typists. I'm miserable that Outlook 2007 doesn't let me use them.
I've been writing MS furiously at every comment post I've found on their
site. I will bend someone's ear at the 2008 CES, where Microsoft always has
developers present.

I'd be very pleased if anyone could make headway with MS on this issue.
This is the only feature where the new suite is a huge step backwards.

 

[Patrick Pirtle]

I'm responding to this thread with a related question. If I
understand this thread correctly, it ONLY has to do with
assigning hotkeys to various phrases. What I'm trying to
do is simply:

1. Start a new mail message.

2. Be able to click a command button and have a phrase
entered into the body of my message at the cursor.

I've seen vba code that inserts text AS IT CREATES
the mail message, but I would like to enter text into an
email message after it is begun. I am currently doing
this by defining autocorrect phrases, but I'd like to put
them on a toolbar.

Is this something that can be done easily? Without
vba? TIA for any help

 

[F. H. Muffman]

I'm responding to this thread with a related question. If I
understand this thread correctly, it ONLY has to do with
assigning hotkeys to various phrases. What I'm trying to
do is simply:

1. Start a new mail message.

2. Be able to click a command button and have a phrase
entered into the body of my message at the cursor.

I've seen vba code that inserts text AS IT CREATES
the mail message, but I would like to enter text into an
email message after it is begun. I am currently doing
this by defining autocorrect phrases, but I'd like to put
them on a toolbar.

Is this something that can be done easily? Without
vba? TIA for any help

What version of Outlook? If it's 2007, check help for Quick Parts. That'd
be the first step. And that is on the toolbar. Otherwise, VBA code can
easily be attached to a button on a toolbar.

 

[Patrick Pirtle]

What version of Outlook? If it's 2007, check help for Quick Parts. That'd
be the first step. And that is on the toolbar. Otherwise,
VBA code can easily be attached to a button on a toolbar.

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm using version 2003.

Any idea for vba code that I can crib from to insert text
into an EXISTING open email message? Thanks,
again.

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