How to Auto Create New Tasks When Receiving Specific Emails in Outlook

Someone hopes that Outlook can create new tasks automatically when specific emails land into their mailbox. But Outlook doesn’t offer this feature by default. If you have this wish, you still can achieve it by the method introduced in this article.

Outlook has no native support to automatically create new tasks when receiving specific emails. However, you still can realize it with the help of rules and VBA. If you are interested in this capability, please read on. The followings are elaborate steps.

Auto Create New Tasks When Receiving Specific Emails

1. At first, launch Outlook and enable macros.

• Go to “File” menu and select “Options”.
• In “Outlook Options”, shift to “Trust Center” tab and click “Trust Center Settings” button.
• Next in “Trust Center” window, switch to “Macro Settings” tab and then select “Notifications for all macros”.

2. Click several “OK” to activate the changes and back to Outlook main window.
3. Now go to “Developer” tab and click on “Visual Basic” button.
4. In the subsequent window, find and double click on “ThisOutlookSession” in the project list at the left side.
5. Then in the popup “ThisOutlookSession” window, you need to copy and paste the following codes into it, like the screenshot:

Sub CreateNewTask(Item As Outlook.MailItem)
    Dim obApp As Object
    Dim NewTask As TaskItem
    
    Set obApp = Outlook.Application
    Set NewTask = obApp.CreateItem(olTaskItem)
    
    With NewTask
        .Subject = Item.Subject
        .StartDate = Item.ReceivedTime
        .DueDate = Item.ReceivedTime + 1
        .Body = Item.Body
        .Importance = olImportanceHigh
        .Save
    End With
    
    Set obApp = Nothing
    Set NewTask = Nothing
End Sub

6. After that, minimize the current “Visual Basic” screen and back to Outlook main window.
7. Next shift back to “Home” tab and click on “Rules” button in “Move” group. From the drop down menu, select “Manage Rules & Alerts”.
8. In the new popup dialog box of “Rules and Alerts”, click “New Rule”.
9. Another dialog box of “Rules Wizard” will arise. You should pitch on “Apply rule on messages I receive” and hit “Next” button.
10. Subsequently, in the latter screen, you can specify the rule condition, namely what kind of emails which you want to create new tasks from. For example, if you want to create new tasks when receiving emails from your boss:

• Select “from people or public group”.
• Then click on “people or public group” link in “Step 2”.
• In the popup “Rule Address” dialog, double click on your boss’s email address and hit “OK”.

11. After regulating the condition as per your needs, click “Next” button.
12. Later you would be required to select the action – “Run a script”. In “Step 2” box, click on “a script” link. And a new small dialog box of “Select Script” will show up, you could pitch on the previously added macro and click “OK”.
13. Finally click two “OK”, you will get into the final screen. Here you can assign a new name for this rule and review the rule descriptions. After confirming no errors, you can click “Finish” button.

Thereafter, once you receive the emails that accord with rule conditions, Outlook will create the corresponding tasks automatically. You can check these tasks in your task folder.

Keep Vigilant against Malicious Emails

Email borne virus has become a more and more common type of security threats. In general, the malicious matters are unknown links, unrecognized attachments and embedded macros. In order to secure Outlook data, we have to beware of the risks, such as never opening the suspicious attachments. Moreover, it’s suggested to invest in a top-of-the-line repair tool, like DataNumen Outlook Repair. It can repair Outlook email problem like a breeze.

Author Introduction:

Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including repair SQL Server file damage and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com