Save e-mail messages or entire folders as pdf-file

Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can be saved directly as pdf-files. Sadly, this option is not available in Outlook, not even in Outlook for Microsoft 365. There are of course alternatives such as a pdf-printer (like “Microsoft Print to PDF” or a 3rd party pdf-printer) , using Adobe Acrobat or a 3rd party add-in such as SaveAsPDF by Sperry Software.

Another way is to use the VBA macro in this guide which uses Word’s capabilities to save documents in the pdf-format.

A benefit of this macro over most pdf-printers is that any hyperlinks within the message will continue to work and any Internet images are automatically downloaded too.

A second macro is provided which allows you to select multiple emails, or even all emails within a folder, and save them as pdf-files all at once.

This guide also contains modification examples to control the default file name for the pdf-file. This is for instance also not possible with a pdf-printer and can be quite a timesaver when you regularly need to save e-mail messages as pdf-files.

• Save As PDF macro
• Quick Install
• Troubleshooting
• Macro code
• Modifications

ToolTip!
SaveAsPDF by Sperry Software is an add-in to quickly archive your emails into pdf-files. The available options go well beyond what the macro in this guide or any pdf-printer can do. For instance, it can save a message together with its attachments into a single pdf-file. It can also monitor specified folders and automatically save messages as pdf-files in the background for archiving purposes.
If you decide to order use BH93RF24 to get a discount.

SaveAsPDF and SaveAllAsPDF macros

The SaveAsPDF macro uses Word’s capabilities to save documents as pdf-file. In short, it saves the selected message (or any other Outlook item) in the mht-format which is then opened in the background in Word where a Save As operation is initiated for the pdf-format.

The SaveAllAsPDF macro works in the same way but allows you to select more than one email to convert to the pdf-format in one go. You’ll be prompted to select the folder to save the messages to.

By assigning a button to the macro, you can save messages as a pdf-file as easy as you would have saved it before.

Quick Install

Use the following instructions to configure the macro in Outlook;

1. Download this code-file (saveaspdf.zip) or copy the code below.
2. Open the VBA Editor (keyboard shortcut ALT+F11)
3. Extract the zip-file and import the SaveAsPDF.bas and/or SaveAllAsPDF.bas file via File-> Import…
   If you copied the code, paste it into a new module.
4. Add a reference to: Microsoft Word <version> Object Library.
   Tools-> References…
   • Note: The word “<version>” stands for your version number of Word.
     • Word 2010 = 14.0
     • Word 2013 = 15.0
     • Word 2016, 2019 and Microsoft 365 = 16.0
5. Sign your code so you won’t get any security prompts and the macro won’t get disabled.
6. Add a button for easy access to the macro.

A button can be added to the main Outlook window or to any of the open item windows.

Note:
It could take some time before the Save As dialog is shown as the macro first needs to load Word in the background. This can take about 3-5 seconds for a modern computer and 5-10 seconds for older/slower computers.
If the message holds external images (such as newsletters), the processing time could increase even more as the images are being downloaded.

Troubleshooting

Below you’ll find a couple of common issues which you could run into when using this macro and how to resolve them.

Outlook becomes inaccessible and Save As dialog doesn’t show
A common issue is that the Save As dialog doesn’t take the foreground, especially on Windows 7, and as a result Outlook becomes “unresponsive”.

This isn’t an issue with the VBA macro itself but a bug in Windows 7. When this happens, minimizing your Outlook screen by selecting it on the Windows Task Bar (as the Outlook windows itself will be inaccessible) should reveal the Save As dialog. When you have multiple Outlook windows open, hold SHIFT while right clicking on the Outlook icon and choose “Minimize all windows”. Clicking on the Show Desktop icon or pressing the Windows Logo key + M on your keyboard will also minimize everything.

A reasonable effective workaround for this issue is to load the VBA Editor just once during the Outlook session. To do this, press ALT+F11 and then directly close it again. Now when you run the macro, the Save As dialog will pop-up in the front.

Compile error: User-defined type not defined
When you get this error, most likely the line Dim wrdApp As Word.Application is highlighted as well. In that case, you have not enabled “Microsoft Word <version> Object Library” as a reference as indicated (step 4 of the Quick Install guide).

A reference to the Microsoft Word Object Library is required for this macro to work.

Macro appears to do nothing
If the macro used to work and when you are sure the Save As dialog isn’t hidden in the background but the macro suddenly stopped working, it is likely that the WINWORD.EXE process crashed the last time you were working with the macro. To recover;

1. Close any open Word document and also verify that the WINWORD.EXE process isn’t listed anymore on the Processes tab of Windows Task Manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC).
2. Open the Temp folder by typing %TEMP% in the Search box of the Start Menu or in a Run command.
3. Locate the file www_howto-outlook_com.mht right click on it and choose;
   Open with-> Microsoft Word.
4. Read the crash notice and confirm to open it.
5. Close Word.
6. Run the macro again.

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.

SaveAsPDF

Sub SaveAsPDFfile() '================================================================= 'Description: Outlook macro to save a selected item in the ' pdf-format. ' 'Important! This macro requires a reference added to the ' Microsoft Word <version> Object Library ' In VBA Editor: Tools-> References... ' 'author : Robert Sparnaaij 'version: 2.0 'website: https://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/saveaspdf.htm '================================================================= 'Get all selected items Dim objOL As Outlook.Application Dim objSelection As Outlook.Selection Dim objItem As Object Set objOL = Outlook.Application Set objSelection = objOL.ActiveExplorer.Selection 'Make sure at least one item is selected If objSelection.Count <> 1 Then Response = MsgBox("Please select a single item", vbExclamation, "Save as PDF") Exit Sub End If 'Retrieve the selected item Set objItem = objSelection.Item(1) 'Get the user's TempFolder to store the item in Dim FSO As Object, TmpFolder As Object Set FSO = CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject") Set tmpFileName = FSO.GetSpecialFolder(2) 'construct the filename for the temp mht-file strName = "www_howto-outlook_com" tmpFileName = tmpFileName & "\" & strName & ".mht" 'Save the mht-file objItem.SaveAs tmpFileName, olMHTML 'Create a Word object Dim wrdApp As Word.Application Dim wrdDoc As Word.Document Set wrdApp = CreateObject("Word.Application") 'Open the mht-file in Word without Word visible Set wrdDoc = wrdApp.Documents.Open(FileName:=tmpFileName, Visible:=False) 'Define the SaveAs dialog Dim dlgSaveAs As FileDialog Set dlgSaveAs = wrdApp.FileDialog(msoFileDialogSaveAs) 'Determine the FilterIndex for saving as a pdf-file 'Get all the filters Dim fdfs As FileDialogFilters Dim fdf As FileDialogFilter Set fdfs = dlgSaveAs.Filters 'Loop through the Filters and exit when "pdf" is found Dim i As Integer i = 0 For Each fdf In fdfs i = i + 1 If InStr(1, fdf.Extensions, "pdf", vbTextCompare) > 0 Then Exit For End If Next fdf 'Set the FilterIndex to pdf-files dlgSaveAs.FilterIndex = i 'Get location of the Documents folder Dim WshShell As Object Dim SpecialPath As String Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") DocumentsPath = WshShell.SpecialFolders(16) 'Construct a safe file name from the message subject Dim strFileName As String strFileName = objItem.Subject Set oRegEx = CreateObject("vbscript.regexp") oRegEx.Global = True oRegEx.Pattern = "[\/:*?""<>|]" strFileName = Trim(oRegEx.Replace(strFileName, "")) 'Set the initial location and file name for SaveAs dialog Dim strCurrentFile As String dlgSaveAs.InitialFileName = DocumentsPath & "\" & strFileName 'Show the SaveAs dialog and save the message as pdf If dlgSaveAs.Show = -1 Then strCurrentFile = dlgSaveAs.SelectedItems(1) 'Verify if pdf is selected If Right(strCurrentFile, 4) <> ".pdf" Then Response = MsgBox("Sorry, only saving in the pdf-format is supported." & _ vbNewLine & vbNewLine & "Save as pdf instead?", vbInformation + vbOKCancel) If Response = vbCancel Then wrdDoc.Close wrdApp.Quit Exit Sub ElseIf Response = vbOK Then intPos = InStrRev(strCurrentFile, ".") If intPos > 0 Then strCurrentFile = Left(strCurrentFile, intPos - 1) End If strCurrentFile = strCurrentFile & ".pdf" End If End If 'Save as pdf wrdDoc.ExportAsFixedFormat OutputFileName:= _ strCurrentFile, ExportFormat:= _ wdExportFormatPDF, OpenAfterExport:=False, OptimizeFor:= _ wdExportOptimizeForPrint, Range:=wdExportAllDocument, From:=0, To:=0, _ Item:=wdExportDocumentContent, IncludeDocProps:=True, KeepIRM:=True, _ CreateBookmarks:=wdExportCreateNoBookmarks, DocStructureTags:=True, _ BitmapMissingFonts:=True, UseISO19005_1:=False End If ' close the document and Word wrdDoc.Close wrdApp.Quit 'Cleanup Set objOL = Nothing Set objSelection = Nothing Set objItem = Nothing Set FSO = Nothing Set tmpFileName = Nothing Set wrdApp = Nothing Set wrdDoc = Nothing Set dlgSaveAs = Nothing Set fdfs = Nothing Set WshShell = Nothing Set oRegEx = Nothing End Sub
Click in the area above and press CTR+A to select all. Press CTRL+C to copy the code.

SaveAllAsPDF

Sub SaveAllAsPDFfile() '================================================================= 'Description: Outlook macro to save all selected items in the ' pdf-format. ' 'Important! This macro requires a reference added to the ' Microsoft Word <version> Object Library ' In VBA Editor: Tools-> References... ' 'author : Robert Sparnaaij 'version: 2.0 'website: https://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/saveaspdf.htm '================================================================= 'Get all selected items Dim objOL As Outlook.Application Dim objSelection As Outlook.Selection Dim objItem As Object Set objOL = Outlook.Application Set objSelection = objOL.ActiveExplorer.Selection 'Make sure at least one item is selected If objSelection.Count > 0 Then 'Get the user's TempFolder to store the item in Dim FSO As Object, TmpFolder As Object Set FSO = CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject") Set tmpFileName = FSO.GetSpecialFolder(2) 'construct the filename for the temp mht-file strName = "www_howto-outlook_com" tmpFileName = tmpFileName & "\" & strName & ".mht" 'Create a Word object Dim wrdApp As Word.Application Dim wrdDoc As Word.Document Set wrdApp = CreateObject("Word.Application") 'Get location of the Documents folder Dim WshShell As Object Dim SpecialPath As String Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") DocumentsPath = WshShell.SpecialFolders(16) 'Show Select Folder dialog for output files Dim dlgFolderPicker As FileDialog Set dlgFolderPicker = wrdApp.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker) dlgFolderPicker.AllowMultiSelect = False dlgFolderPicker.InitialFileName = DocumentsPath If dlgFolderPicker.Show = -1 Then strSaveFilePath = dlgFolderPicker.SelectedItems.Item(1) Else Result = MsgBox("No folder selected. Please select a folder.", _ vbCritical, "SaveAllAsPDFfile") wrdApp.Quit Exit Sub End If For Each objItem In objSelection 'Save the mht-file objItem.SaveAs tmpFileName, olMHTML 'Open the mht-file in Word without Word visible Set wrdDoc = wrdApp.Documents.Open(FileName:=tmpFileName, Visible:=False) 'Construct the unique file name to prevent overwriting. 'Here we base it on the ReceivedDate and the subject. 'Feel free to alter the file name defintion and date/time format to your liking Dim strFileName As String Dim DateTimeFormatted As String DateTimeFormatted = Format(objItem.ReceivedTime, "yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss") strFileName = DateTimeFormatted & " - " & objItem.Subject 'Make sure the file name is safe for saving Set oRegEx = CreateObject("vbscript.regexp") oRegEx.Global = True oRegEx.Pattern = "[\/:*?""<>|]" strFileName = Trim(oRegEx.Replace(strFileName, "")) 'Construct save path strSaveFileLocation = strSaveFilePath & "\" & strFileName 'Save as pdf wrdDoc.ExportAsFixedFormat OutputFileName:= _ strSaveFileLocation, ExportFormat:= _ wdExportFormatPDF, OpenAfterExport:=False, OptimizeFor:= _ wdExportOptimizeForPrint, Range:=wdExportAllDocument, From:=0, To:=0, _ Item:=wdExportDocumentContent, IncludeDocProps:=True, KeepIRM:=True, _ CreateBookmarks:=wdExportCreateNoBookmarks, DocStructureTags:=True, _ BitmapMissingFonts:=True, UseISO19005_1:=False 'Close the current document wrdDoc.Close Next 'Close Word wrdApp.Quit 'Oops, nothing is selected Else Result = MsgBox("No item selected. Please make a selection first.", _ vbCritical, "SaveAllAsPDFfile") Exit Sub End If 'Cleanup Set objOL = Nothing Set objSelection = Nothing Set FSO = Nothing Set tmpFileName = Nothing Set WshShell = Nothing Set dlgFolderPicker = Nothing Set wrdApp = Nothing Set wrdDoc = Nothing Set oRegEx = Nothing End Sub
Click in the area above and press CTR+A to select all. Press CTRL+C to copy the code.

Modifications

The suggested file name for saving the pdf-file is created by the macro and is a safe version of the subject of the selected email. This means that any characters within the subject that can’t be part of the filename are removed.

When using the SaveAllAsPDF macro, the file names also contain the received date and time, up to the second, to make sure the file names are unique and emails do not get overwritten.

Depending on your needs, you may want to modify this suggested file name. Below is explained how you can do this and several examples are listed to get your started.

Replace invalid characters with another character

Instead of removing any invalid characters, you may want to replace them with another character which is safe. To do this you must alter the following line;

strFileName = Trim(oRegEx.Replace(strFileName, ""))

If you’d like to replace them with a dash (-) character, you must change it into;

strFileName = Trim(oRegEx.Replace(strFileName, "-"))

If you’d only want replace some characters but drop the others, you can do something like this;

oRegEx.Pattern = "[\/:*<>|]"
strFileName = Trim(oRegEx.Replace(strFileName, "-"))
oRegEx.Pattern = "[?""]"
strFileName = Trim(oRegEx.Replace(strFileName, ""))

Add received date and time

As mentioned, this modification is also included in the SaveAllAsPDF macro and added via these two lines;

DateTimeFormatted = Format(objItem.ReceivedTime, "yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss")
strFileName = DateTimeFormatted & " - " & objItem.Subject

The date and time format is determined via the y (year), m (month), d (day), h (hour), m (minute) and s (seconds) definition at the end of the first line. You can alter the format and/or separator character if you want but the order above will help sorting the saved items chronologically.

Add sender name or address (?)

Similarly to adding the date and time, you could add the sender’s name or email address to the file name.

strFileName = objItem.SenderName & " - " & objItem.Subject

strFileName = obj.SenderEmailAddress & " - " & objItem.Subject