MS-Access and E-Mail

Introduction

You are unlikely to use Microsoft Access to send personal emails over the Internet, especially when so many other convenient options are available.

However, if your Access application regularly generates reports that need to be shared with remote users—and you are currently sending them via traditional postal services—email becomes a practical and efficient alternative worth considering.

If you are connected to a Local Area Network (LAN), reports can also be distributed internally through intranet mail services such as Lotus Notes.

For both Internet and Intranet mail to function properly, Microsoft Outlook must be configured as the communication bridge between Microsoft Access and the mail transport system—whether it’s the SMTP server of your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or an Intranet mail system like Lotus Notes. If you’re already using Microsoft Outlook to send and receive emails, then it's likely already set up correctly. Outlook also maintains a Contact List, which can be used to select prospective email recipients.

Note: Configuring Microsoft Outlook is beyond the scope of this article. For guidance, refer to Outlook’s built-in Help or the documentation provided by your ISP. That said, we will cover the configuration steps for using Outlook with Lotus Notes intranet mail in upcoming posts.

Outlook Versions.

There are two types of Microsoft Outlook installations:

1. Internet Mail Only – typically used for personal email through services like Gmail or Outlook.com.

2. Corporate or Workgroup – configured for use in business environments, often connected to Microsoft Exchange or intranet mail systems like Lotus Notes.

To check which version is installed on your PC:

• Open Microsoft Outlook.

• Click on the Help menu (in older versions) and select About Microsoft Outlook.

If it is the Corporate or Workgroup version, you will see this label explicitly displayed in the upper section of the About screen.

Scenario 1: Automated Birthday Greetings

If your company is a service-oriented organization—such as a Bank, Insurance Firm, or Health Clinic—you likely maintain customer profiles that include date of birth. You can configure your Microsoft Access application to automatically:

• Identify customers whose birthdays fall on the current day.

• Generate personalized birthday messages using a predefined email template.

• Send the greeting via Outlook with a single click or fully automated routine.

This adds a personal touch to your service and strengthens customer relationships.

OR

Scenario 2: Notification of Revised Interest Rates

When your bank revises interest rates for Fixed Deposits or Savings Schemes, you may want to:

• Notify all relevant account holders or only those with deposits maturing soon.

• Include personalized details such as account number, maturity amount, or new applicable rates.

• Attach an official circular or brochure in PDF format.

Using Microsoft Access, you can filter target recipients, generate individual messages, and dispatch them through Outlook in a batch process.

OR

Scenario 3: Bank Guarantee Renewal Alerts

If your company extends credit to customers based on renewable Bank Guarantees, your Microsoft Access application can be configured to:

• Monitor expiry dates of submitted guarantees.

• Automatically generate email alerts to internal stakeholders or account managers responsible for follow-up.

• Ensure that reminders are sent well in advance of the renewal due dates, giving ample time to coordinate with the customer.

This proactive approach minimizes credit risk and helps maintain compliance with company policies and financial safeguards.

In all the above scenarios—or in similar situations—the Mail Alert process can be fully automated using VBA programs within Microsoft Access. Toward the end of this series, we will explore a sample procedure for sending emails automatically through Lotus Notes, demonstrating how such integration can streamline communication and improve operational efficiency.

Using Lotus Notes for email.

In the meantime, let us look into a simple mail-sending example that sends a Report as an attachment, in Microsoft Access Snapshot Format, manually.

1. Open your database and select a Report (avoid choosing the dynamic report we created in the previous session).

2. Go to the File menu, point to Send To, and click Mail Recipient (as Attachment).

3. From the list of available file formats, select Snapshot Format.

4. A dialog box will appear, prompting you to choose a Mail Transport Profile already configured in Microsoft Outlook or to create a new one.

5. Choose the default profile you typically use to send emails. If you set this profile as the default, this dialog will not appear the next time.

6. After clicking OK, the email editor screen will open, allowing you to modify the message content before sending.

   See the image below.

   

   Click to Enlarge

7. Click the To button to select email addresses from the Contacts List in Microsoft Outlook. The Cc button functions the same way.

8. You will notice that the selected Report has already been converted into Microsoft Access Snapshot Format and attached to the email. If you prefer to send an external file—such as a Word or Excel document—instead, click the Attach... button and browse to select the file from your hard disk.

9. The blue-colored panel on the right side will remain hidden until you click the Attachment Options button located next to it.

   Two attachment options are available. The default option, Regular Attachment, sends individual copies of the attachment to each recipient. The second option is intended for Intranet mail systems, where the attachment is saved in a shared location accessible to all recipients. This option can be safely ignored in most cases.

10. You can compose your email in plain text and click the Send button on the toolbar. Microsoft Outlook will handle the rest.

Sample Mail Image

A sample image of the Sent Items display of Microsoft Outlook 2003 is given below for reference.

Click to Enlarge

If you are sending a standard report as an attachment with predefined wording in the email body, the entire process can be automated using a macro. Refer to the configuration of the SendObject Command in the macro design image below for proper setup. 

The SendObject Command

The SendObject command is selected in the Action column of the macro design grid, and the corresponding email-related field values are specified in the property sheet below. If you do not intend to send an Access object as an attachment, the first three property values can be left blank. Setting the Edit Message property to Yes will open the email client, allowing you to edit the message before sending, as demonstrated earlier. If it is set to No, the message will be sent directly through Microsoft Outlook without being displayed on the screen.

You can attach this macro to a Command Button or run it from VBA code using DoCmd.RunMacro "MacroName". If you wish to control the frequency of emails with the report attachment, you should implement a procedure that verifies the scheduled date or day before executing the macro. We will explore such a program—designed to send emails automatically on a weekly schedule—at the end of this series.

Next, we will explore the procedure for configuring Lotus Notes as a mail transport mechanism for sending emails within a Local Area Network (LAN).

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