Record gas mileage for Appointments, Meetings, Contacts and Tasks

Even though Outlook has a field to record mileage for various items, aside from the Tasks item, it is nearly impossible to fill it out quickly.

While you could customize your Appointment and Contact forms or create a Form Region to make the field more readily available, those solutions are a bit of overkill just for this field alone. Another way to enter it would be to use a list view and enable in-cell editing but that would be quite cumbersome when you need to do it on a regular basis.

This guide contains a code sample which you can use to quickly log and retrieve your mileage for a selected or opened Appointment/Meeting, Contact item or Task.

• AddMileage macro
• Quick Install
• Macro code
• Reporting mileage and add-in alternatives

AddMileage macro

The AddMileage macro allows you to enter or retrieve the mileage for a selected or opened Appointment/Meeting, Contact item or Task. This value is stored in the built-in Mileage field of that item.

When executing the macro, you’ll be prompted to enter the mileage. If you already have recorded mileage for that specific item before, then that is being displayed as well. When you only use numerals, then you can even do add and subtract calculations by placing a “+” or a “-“ in font of the mileage number.

Quickly record, see, add or subtract mileage info to your items.

Quick Install

Use the following instructions to configure the macro in Outlook;

1. Download this code-file (addmileage.zip) or copy the code below.
2. Open the VBA Editor (keyboard shortcut ALT+F11)
3. Extract the zip-file and import the AddMileage.bas file via File-> Import…
   If you copied the code, paste it into a new module.
4. Sign your code so you won’t get any security prompts and the macro won’t get disabled.
5. Add a button for easy access to the macro.

Add a button to the Ribbon or the QAT to execute the AddMileage macro.

Macro Code

The following code is contained in the zip-file referenced in the Quick Install. You can use the code below for review or manual installation.

Sub AddMileage() '================================================================= 'Description: Outlook macro to set the mileage for an appointment, ' meeting, contact or task item. ' It can also add and subtract mileage if a mileage ' has already been set. ' 'author : Robert Sparnaaij 'version: 1.0 'website: https://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/addmileage.htm '================================================================= Dim objOL As Outlook.Application Dim objSelection As Outlook.Selection Dim objItem As Object Set objOL = Outlook.Application 'Get the selected item Select Case TypeName(objOL.ActiveWindow) Case "Explorer" Set objSelection = objOL.ActiveExplorer.Selection If objSelection.Count > 0 Then Set objItem = objSelection.Item(1) Else Result = MsgBox("No item selected. " & _ "Please make a selection first.", _ vbCritical, "Add Mileage") Exit Sub End If Case "Inspector" Set objItem = objOL.ActiveInspector.CurrentItem Case Else Result = MsgBox("Unsupported Window type." & _ vbNewLine & "Please make a selection" & _ " or open an item first.", _ vbCritical, "Add Mileage") Exit Sub End Select Dim CurrentMileage As String Dim Operator As String Dim Mileage As String 'Get the object class If objItem.Class = olAppointment _ Or objItem.Class = olContact _ Or objItem.Class = olTask _ Then 'Get the mileage If objItem.Mileage > "" Then CurrentMileage = objItem.Mileage Else CurrentMileage = 0 End If 'Set mileage dialog Dim Explanation As String Explanation = "You can use the operators + and - to add or subtract from " & _ "the currently recorded mileage, respectively." _ & vbNewLine & vbNewLine & _ "If you do not specify an operator, your input will " & _ "overwrite the current value." Result = InputBox("Currently recorded mileage for the selected item: " & _ CurrentMileage & vbNewLine & vbNewLine & Explanation, "Add Mileage") 'User canceled dialog If Result = "" Then Exit Sub End If 'Determine if an operator is set and the possibility of doing calculations Operator = Left(Result, 1) If Len(Result) > 1 Then Mileage = Right(Result, Len(Result) - 1) If Operator = "+" Or Operator = "-" Then If IsNumeric(CurrentMileage) = True And IsNumeric(Trim(Mileage)) = True Then Dim intCurrentMileage As Integer Dim intMileage As Integer intCurrentMileage = CurrentMileage intMileage = Mileage Else Result = MsgBox("Sorry, your current mileage and/or provided " & _ "mileage isn't numeric so calculations aren't possible.", _ vbCritical, "Add Mileage") Exit Sub End If End If End If 'Set the new mileage Select Case Operator Case "+" objItem.Mileage = intCurrentMileage + intMileage Case "-" objItem.Mileage = intCurrentMileage - intMileage Case Else objItem.Mileage = Result End Select objItem.Save Else Result = MsgBox("No Appointment, Contact or Task item selected. " & _ vbNewLine & "Please make a valid selection first.", _ vbCritical, "Add Mileage") Exit Sub End If 'Cleanup Set objOL = Nothing Set objItem = Nothing Set objSelection = Nothing End Sub
Click in the area above and press CTR+A to select all. Press CTRL+C to copy the code.

Reporting mileage and add-in alternatives

Just recording your mileage probably isn’t enough. Most likely you’ll also need to report it at some point.

Simple report
To create a simple report which includes the mileage as well, you can use the VBA or Excel method described in the guide: 3 Methods to report time spent on Meetings, Tasks and Journal items

VBOffice Reporter
To create a more sophisticated report, especially when you need to do it on a regular basis, the VBOffice Reporter add-in is highly recommended. The reports can be pre-configured and generated in an instant. The reporting templates can be adjusted to match your company’s standard layout and formatting and include the company’s logo.