The TaskItem Object is one of the objects in the Outlook Object Model hierarchy. This series of articles will explore the ways you can program with tasks.

Follow the above links to learn more about the TaskItem Object's methods, properties and events.

Creating Tasks in Default Folder

Tasks may be created in several ways. First is the default method Application.CreateItem, which creates a new task in the default Tasks folder. This function creates a new Task and returns it for use in your VBA programs.

Function CreateTask() As Outlook.TaskItem
  Set CreateTask = Outlook.CreateItem(olTaskItem)
End Function

Create Tasks in Shared Folder

You can also create tasks in shared folders. Here is a function that creates a task in the specified user's shared Tasks folder. The TaskItem is returned to the calling procedure.

To call the function, pass in either a resolved Recipient object or the name of a user whose shared Tasks folder you want to access.

Function CreateSharedDefaultTask(recip As Variant) As Outlook.TaskItem

Dim olNS As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim fldr As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Dim tempRecip As Outlook.recipient

  Set olNS = GetNS(GetOutlookApp)

  Select Case TypeName(recip)
    Case "Recipient"
      ' Recipient object already created
      Set fldr = olNS.GetSharedDefaultFolder(recip, olFolderTasks)

    Case "String"
      ' create Recipient object
      Set tempRecip = olNS.CreateRecipient(recip)

      Set fldr = olNS.GetSharedDefaultFolder(tempRecip, olFolderTasks)

  End Select

  Set CreateSharedDefaultTask = fldr.Items.Add(olTaskItem)

End Function

Function GetNS(ByRef app As Outlook.Application) As Outlook.NameSpace
  Set GetNS = app.GetNamespace("MAPI")
End Function
Function GetOutlookApp() As Outlook.Application
' returns reference to native Application object
  Set GetOutlookApp = Outlook.Application
End Function

If a Recipient object is passed to the function, the new TaskItem is created directly. If only a name is passed, a temporary Recipient object is created using the Outlook.NameSpace.CreateRecipient Method.

Create Tasks in any Tasks Folder

We can also create new tasks in any folder that can hold Task Items. This function accepts a MAPIFolder object and checks to make sure it can hold tasks. If so, it creates a new task in that folder and returns it to the calling procedure. How you create the MAPIFolder object is up to you.

Function CreateTaskAltFolder(fldr As Outlook.MAPIFolder) As Outlook.TaskItem
  ' add/return new task in non-default Tasks folder
  If fldr.DefaultItemType = olTaskItem Then
    Set CreateTaskAltFolder = fldr.Items.Add(olTaskItem)
  End If
End Function