Macro to open a web URL from Outlook

Published: | by Julian Knight Reading time ~1 min.
📖 Kb | 📎 Development, Microsoft, Software | 🔖 Microsoft, Office, Outlook, VBA

Many of us spend most of our work time in a few applications such as Outlook (email) and a web browser. This example macro for Microsoft Outlook will let you add a button to the Outlook Ribbon that will open a specific website URL.

To use this macro:

  • Open the VBA Editor window (ctrl-F11)
  • Double-click on Project1 > Microsoft Outlook Objects > ThisOutlookSession in the Project pane (top-left)
  • Paste the code below
  • Customise the Ribbon
  • Add a new Group (you can’t add your own entries to the standard groups)
  • Add the openGoogle macro (or whatever you’ve added), rename and change the icon if desired

Note: This version will only work for the 64-bit version of Microsoft Outlook. To use on the 32-bit version, remove the word PtrSafe.

Option Explicit

Private Declare PtrSafe Function ShellExecute _
    Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteA" ( _
        ByVal hWnd As Long, _
        ByVal Operation As String, _
        ByVal Filename As String, _
        Optional ByVal Parameters As String, _
        Optional ByVal Directory As String, _
        Optional ByVal WindowStyle As Long = vbMinimizedFocus _
    ) As Long

' WARINING: THIS MUST ONLY BE GIVEN SAFE URLs!
'           DO NOT USE WITH DIRECT USER INPUT
Private Sub openUrl(url As String)
    Dim lSuccess As Long
    lSuccess = ShellExecute(0, "Open", url)
End Sub

Public Sub openGoogle()
    openUrl "https://google.com"
End Sub
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