Delay Sending Outlook Messages
You hit Send, then realize you forgot the attachment. Or you misspelled the recipient’s name. Or you used Reply All, when you only wanted the message to go to one person. None of these things have ever happened to me (well hardly ever), but you might have been less fortunate.
All kinds of tragedies can strike in that ohnosecond, just after you fire off an email. As a bit of insurance, you can change a setting in Outlook, so messages are delayed a set number of minutes. Then, if you realize you didn’t want to include everyone in the lottery ticket email, you’ll have time to delete a name or two from the Send To list.
There are instructions for changing this setting on the Microsoft website. It will only take you a couple of minutes to make the change, and that investment will pay for itself the first time you can correct an error before an email is sent.
Update (2008-Sep-19): JP has written an article describing how to delay Outlook messages with programming.
Filed under: Communication, Email, Outlook


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Time: September 18, 2008, 12:03 am
[...] Delay Sending Outlook Messages [...]
Comment from JP
Time: September 19, 2008, 3:56 pm
Hey Debra, you can also do this programmatically in Outlook. There is a DeferredDeliveryTime Property of the MailItem Object where you can set the delivery date/time. I’ll post some sample code on my blog.
–JP
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Time: September 19, 2008, 4:56 pm
[...] Delay Sending Outlook Messages, Debra Dalgleish writes about deferring delivery times for Outlook messages: You hit Send, then [...]
Comment from Debra Dalgleish
Time: September 19, 2008, 9:40 pm
Thanks JP, I’ve updated the article to add a link to your blog.
Comment from Ron de Bruin
Time: September 21, 2008, 2:17 pm
Hi all
Yes I have this tip also on mt tips page of my Outlook examples, I think I never used it myself.
http://www.rondebruin.nl/mail/tips2.htm
DeferredDeliveryTime
‘Stay in the outbox untill this date and time
.DeferredDeliveryTime = “1/6/2007 10:40:00 AM”
‘Wait four hours
.DeferredDeliveryTime = DateAdd(”h”, 4, Now)
Comment from Debra Dalgleish
Time: September 21, 2008, 8:00 pm
Thanks Ron! You have tons of good stuff on your site.
Comment from Stevo
Time: November 19, 2008, 10:41 pm
Ron de Bruin
‘Stay in the outbox untill this date and time
.DeferredDeliveryTime = “1/6/2007 10:40:00 AM”
I searched for hours for this solution…..You’re the man Ron.
In future when I Google VBA queries I will first try adding your name into the search criteria with what I need. I’ve seen a lot of your replies all over the place and I greatly appreciate your help to the internet community….
Cheers