Today's Lazy Programmer provides an answer for Martin, who asked how to change the font in the Notes field only in Contacts, but not in the other Outlook items types. He also wants to change the font used with existing Contact items.

When you change the font in Options > Mail > Stationery and Fonts, the change is applied to all new Outlook items. Martin wants to use a one font for contacts and another for his email and other Outlook items. (Sticky notes have their own font settings and don't use Word as the editor.)

One option is to use custom stationery for your email messages. While this works fine if you want to use one font for everything except email, since Outlook now uses Word as the email editor, you can use Word VBA to change the font in the notes field in any new item type except email and sticky notes. This code sample shows you how.

This works on new items only, it will not change the font in existing items.

I'm starting with Michael Bauer's Inspector: Edit new items code sample and adding a few lines to set the font. Now when I open any new Outlook item (but not a new message or sticky note), the body font is changed. In my example (so we can easily see that it works), I'm using Wingdings (and size 18 font). Replace it with a font name as seen in the Font selector. (You can use lower case names as the font name is not case-sensitive.)

This is an Application_Startup macro. Paste it into ThisOutlookSession and set a reference to the Microsoft Word Object Library in Tools, References. To test it without restarting Outlook you'll need to click in Application_Startup and click the Run button. Oh, and macro security needs to be set to Low during testing and the macro signed once you're satisfied with it. How to use Outlook’s VBA Editor has more information if you are new to VBA.

Private WithEvents m_Inspectors As Outlook.Inspectors
Private WithEvents m_Inspector As Outlook.Inspector
 '//slipstick.me/888jf
Private Sub Application_Startup()
  Set m_Inspectors = Application.Inspectors
End Sub

Private Sub m_Inspectors_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Outlook.Inspector)
  Set m_Inspector = Inspector
End Sub

' Set a reference to Word object model in 
' Tools, References

Private Sub m_Inspector_Activate()
  
 ' Sticky notes don't use Word editor, so we need check for Notes too
If m_Inspector.CurrentItem.Class = olMail Or m_Inspector.CurrentItem.Class = olNote Then
    Exit Sub
 Else
  
Dim olInspector As Outlook.Inspector
Dim olDocument As Word.Document
Dim olSelection As Word.Selection

Set olInspector = Application.ActiveInspector()
Set olDocument = olInspector.WordEditor
Set olSelection = olDocument.Application.Selection

With olSelection.Font
        .Name = "wingdings"
        .Size = 18
End With

' Delete this line after testing
olSelection.InsertBefore olSelection.Font.Name & " your sample text"
  
  Set m_Inspector = Nothing
  
End Sub

Change the font for only one item type

If, like Martin, you only want to change the font for one Outlook item type, the If... then statement looks for the item type and changes the font. Other types are not touched.

Replace the m_Inspector_Activate() sub with the following code:

Private Sub m_Inspector_Activate()
  '//slipstick.me/888jf
If m_Inspector.CurrentItem.Class = olContact Then

Dim olInspector As Outlook.Inspector
Dim olDocument As Word.Document
Dim olSelection As Word.Selection

Set olInspector = Application.ActiveInspector()
Set olDocument = olInspector.WordEditor
Set olSelection = olDocument.Application.Selection

With olSelection.Font
        .Name = "wingdings"
        .Size = 18
End With

' Used during testing
olSelection.InsertBefore olSelection.Font.Name & " your sample text"

  End If 
  Set m_Inspector = Nothing
  
End Sub

Change the formatting of selected items

This code changes the font in the body of selected appointment, contact, or task items. To use, select the items (it's easier to use a list view, especially for appointments) then run the code. Each item will quickly open then close as Outlook makes the changes.

I recommend selecting some items, then Ctrl+C, V to create a copy of the items for testing.

Put this macro in a module.

Public Sub ChangeFormatting()
    'http://slipstick.me/888jf
    Dim currentExplorer As Explorer
    Dim Selection As Selection
    Dim obj As Object
    
    Dim objWord As Word.Application
    Dim objDoc As Word.Document
    Dim objSel As Word.Selection
    On Error Resume Next
    
    Set currentExplorer = Application.ActiveExplorer
    Set Selection = currentExplorer.Selection

    For Each obj In Selection
            Set objItem = obj
                objItem.Display
                
            Set objInsp = objItem.GetInspector
            Set objDoc = objInsp.WordEditor
            Set objWord = objDoc.Application
            Set objSel = objWord.Selection
        objSel.WholeStory
          
With objSel.Font
        .Name = "broadway"
        .Size = 12
        .Color = wdColorGreen
End With

objItem.Close olSave
            
        Err.Clear
    Next

    Set currentExplorer = Nothing
    Set obj = Nothing
    Set Selection = Nothing
End Sub

How to use the macros on this page

First: You need to have macro security set to the lowest setting, Enable all macros during testing. The macros will not work with the top two options that disable all macros or unsigned macros. You could choose the option Notification for all macros, then accept it each time you restart Outlook, however, because it's somewhat hard to sneak macros into Outlook (unlike in Word and Excel), allowing all macros is safe, especially during the testing phase. You can sign the macro when it is finished and change the macro security to notify.

To check your macro security in Outlook 2010 and newer, go to File, Options, Trust Center and open Trust Center Settings, and change the Macro Settings. In Outlook 2007 and older, look at Tools, Macro Security.

After you test the macro and see that it works, you can either leave macro security set to low or sign the macro.

Macros that run when Outlook starts or automatically need to be in ThisOutlookSession, all other macros should be put in a module, but most will also work if placed in ThisOutlookSession. (It's generally recommended to keep only the automatic macros in ThisOutlookSession and use modules for all other macros.) The instructions are below.

Open the VBA Editor by pressing Alt+F11 on your keyboard.

To put the code in a module:

1. Right click on Project1 and choose Insert > Module
2. Copy and paste the macro into the new module.

To put the macro code in ThisOutlookSession:

1. Expand Project1 and double click on ThisOutlookSession.
2. Copy then paste the macro into ThisOutlookSession. (Click within the code, Select All using Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C to copy, Ctrl+V to paste.)

Set a reference to other Object Libraries
If you receive a "User-defined type not defined" error, you need to set a reference to another object library.

1. Go to Tools, References menu.
2. Locate the object library in the list and add a check mark to it. (Word and Excel object libraries version numbers will match Outlook's version number.)
   

More information as well as screenshots are at How to use the VBA Editor