How to create Outlook reminders from Excel spreadsheet?

Author Siluvia Last modified 2025-04-10

This article is talking about creating Outlook reminders based on data of an Excel spreadsheet.

Create Outlook reminders from Excel spreadsheet with VBA code

Create Outlook reminders from Excel spreadsheet with VBA code

If you want to create Outlook reminders from Excel, please do as follows.

1. Create a worksheet containing the column headers and corresponding reminder fields as shown in the screenshot below.

steps of using vba to create Outlook reminders from Excel spreadsheet

Note: For the "busy status" column, number "2" means that the reminder will be shown as "Busy" in your Outlook calendar. You can change it to "1 (Tentative)", "3 (Out of Office)", "4 (Working elsewhere)", or "5 (Free)" as needed.

2. Press "Alt" + "F11" keys to open the "Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications" window.

3. In the "Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications" window, click "Insert" > "Module". Then copy the following VBA code into the Code window.

VBA code: Create Outlook reminders from Excel spreadsheet

Sub AddAppointments()
'Update by Extendoffice 20180608
    Dim I As Long
    Dim xRg As Range
    Dim xOutApp As Object
    Dim xOutItem As Object
    Set xOutApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
    Set xRg = Range("A2:G2")
    For I = 1 To xRg.Rows.Count
        Set xOutItem = xOutApp.CreateItem(1)
        Debug.Print xRg.Cells(I, 1).Value
        xOutItem.Subject = xRg.Cells(I, 1).Value
        xOutItem.Location = xRg.Cells(I, 2).Value
        xOutItem.Start = xRg.Cells(I, 3).Value
        xOutItem.Duration = xRg.Cells(I, 4).Value
        If Trim(xRg.Cells(I, 5).Value) = "" Then
            xOutItem.BusyStatus = 2
        Else
            xOutItem.BusyStatus = xRg.Cells(I, 5).Value
        End If
        If xRg.Cells(I, 6).Value > 0 Then
            xOutItem.ReminderSet = True
            xOutItem.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart = xRg.Cells(I, 6).Value
        Else
            xOutItem.ReminderSet = False
        End If
        xOutItem.Body = xRg.Cells(I, 7).Value
        xOutItem.Save
        Set xOutItem = Nothing
    Next
    Set xOutApp = Nothing
End Sub

Note: In the above code, "A2:G2" is the data range you want to create appointments based on.

4. Press "F5" or click the "Run" button to run the code. Then all the appointments with specific fields will be inserted into your Outlook calendar at once.

Then you can go to the Calendar of your Outlook to view the results. See screenshot: