Converting Outlook Email to PDF indicates an external use of email messages, whether the user needs to keep a record or like to take the printout.
Microsoft Outlook has excellent features, how to attach an email to Outlook? & send Email as an attachment allow the user to directly attach an email to his folder and send it.
Drag and drop is another option to save email messages to the desktop, but the only issue is the email format.
How to convert an Outlook email to pdf With Outlook 2010 and later?
PDF Format is the top preferred file format used to transport files or data. Here in this article, you will learn step-by-step methods to email to pdf.
There are multiple online websites (completely free) that easily convert MSG email format to PDF, for instance:
Let’s find out a few other methods to convert Outlook email to pdf. The below method is applicable for Outlook 2010 version and later on.
- Open Microsoft Outlook
- Select the message you want to convert to PDF.
- Click the File tab from the left-hand corner of the screen >> Click Print
- Select Microsoft Print to PDF Printer from the drop-down list and click Print.
- The system required a specific location to navigate to save your email into a PDF file.
- Name the file, and the file type is by default (*.pdf), and then click Save.
You can further use the same PDF to email as an attachment.
Use Quick Print under the Quick Access Toolbar
The Quick Access toolbar is available on the top left corner of the Outlook screen, it allows the user to quickly reach any action with a single click.
Quick Print is one of the options, in case it’s not available, you can unhide it very easily.
- Open the email you like to convert into PDF.
- Click on the quick access toolbar (QAT) launcher icon and select Quick Print from the drop-down list.
- Quick Print added to the toolbar.
- It will redirect your file to the printer and directly convert it to PDF and similarly, you need to select the location and save the PDF file.
Bonus tip:
Apart from the above methods simply open the email and click Ctrl + P, it will walk you through the printer section where you convert it to pdf.
VBA code to convert Outlook email to pdf
Below is an example of how to convert an Outlook email to a PDF using VBA:
Sub ConvertMailtoPDF(Item As Outlook.MailItem)
Dim objOL As Outlook.Application
Dim objMsg As Outlook.MailItem
Dim objAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim strSubject As String
Dim strName As String
Dim strPath As String
Dim strFile As String
Dim strPDFFile As String
Dim oAdobePDFMaker As AdobePDFMakerForOffice.PDFMaker
Set objOL = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set objMsg = objOL.CreateItem(olMailItem)
Set oAdobePDFMaker = CreateObject("PDFMakerForOffice.PDFMaker.1")
Set objAttachments = objMsg.Attachments
strSubject = Item.Subject
strName = Item.Subject
strFile = "C:\Temp\" & strName & ".mht"
strPDFFile = "C:\Temp\" & strName & ".pdf"
' Copy the mail into a new mail item
Set objMsg = objOL.CreateItemFromTemplate(Item)
' Save as mht
objMsg.SaveAs strFile, olMHTML
' Use PDFMaker to convert the file to PDF
oAdobePDFMaker.CreatePDF strFile, strPDFFile
Set objAttachments = Nothing
Set objMsg = Nothing
Set objOL = Nothing
Set oAdobePDFMaker = Nothing
End SubYou need to replace “C:\Temp” with the path where you want to store your PDF files.
This code requires Adobe Acrobat and Adobe PDFMaker for Office, which is typically installed with Acrobat, to be present on the machine running this code.
The code creates a new mail item from the selected email, saves it as a .mht file, and then uses Adobe’s PDFMaker to convert the .mht file to a .pdf file.
Please note, manipulating emails with VBA should be done with care, and any code should be thoroughly tested before deployment. It’s also a good idea to back up your emails before running VBA scripts on them.
Related Article: How to Add VBA Code to Outlook: [A Concise Guide]
After adding VBA code in Outlook to convert email to pdf, Does every email convert to pdf?
The VBA code provided to convert emails to PDF in Outlook won’t automatically convert every email you receive into a PDF.
The code works on a single mail item that is passed as a parameter to the function. So, the conversion process is initiated manually for specific emails you choose.
If you want to convert every email you receive into a PDF, you’d need to modify the code and set up a rule to run the script every time a new email arrives in your inbox.
This can be complex and could potentially fill your storage quickly if you receive a large volume of emails.
Keep in mind that running this VBA script on every incoming email might also slow down your Outlook performance, as the conversion process can be resource-intensive.
It’s recommended to use such automation wisely, considering the volume of your incoming emails and the available system resources.
Final Words
In conclusion, the conversion from an Outlook email to PDF is a simple process that takes less than two minutes.
Right-click on the message and choose Print. Under Output click the Save as PDF button.