"This looks very exciting. Just when I fully integrated emailing reports in various client’s bespoke software and boasted about it on my web site, Microsoft pulled the rug from under me. I remember the day that one of my clients foolishly clicked on the upgrade button and told me that things didn’t work as they used to."

"Is there a release date for this?"

"This is definitely a pain point for a lot of developers. When your application is ready, let me know. Maybe I'll do a video review for you."

"Marcus, looking forward to seeing this."

"cool idea, I need that"

One of the first capabilities I wanted MAIL.X to provide was reliable HTML email generation. The idea is simple: the VBA application should generate the content, while MAIL.X takes care of the actual email delivery.
This allows an Access application, for example, to generate a report, convert it to PDF, create an HTML email and send everything without requiring Outlook to be open.
The development update demonstrates this workflow and shows how the VBA interface communicates with the MAIL.X application.

Sending one email is easy.
Sending hundreds of individually generated emails is a different problem.
MAIL.X is designed to support serial and mass mailing scenarios directly from VBA. This makes it possible to generate personalized messages from an Access database and send them one after another using the same COM interface.
In this development update, I demonstrate the process and show how VBA can control the mailing workflow.
Watch the demonstration

Email is only one part of the project.
Another goal of MAIL.X is to provide Office developers with a simple way to work with Google Calendar from VBA.
Instead of building a complete Google API integration inside an Access application, the communication is handled by the MAIL.X application while VBA provides the commands and data.
This update demonstrates how calendar events can be created and managed directly from an Office application. Watch the demonstration

One of the interesting parts of MAIL.X is the architecture behind the simple VBA interface.
The application itself is developed with C#/.NET, while Office applications communicate with it through a COM interface.
This creates an interesting bridge between two worlds: traditional VBA development and modern .NET application development.
In future development updates, I will share more details about this architecture and some of the implementation decisions behind MAIL.X.

At the moment, development of MAIL.X is temporarily paused.
Why?
I am developing MAIL.X in my spare time, and like many developers, I have probably too many ideas and too many tabs open in my head browser. There are several projects I would like to work on, and sometimes it is simply impossible to move everything forward at the same time.
On top of that, I am currently dealing with a family tragedy and a bereavement that requires my full attention.
Sometimes, things simply have to wait.
MAIL.X is not abandoned. The project will continue when the time is right.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for a project is to let it wait.

Google Calendar integration is technically possible and already working, but getting it to a production-ready level requires quite a bit more work — including Google authentication at application level.
So I am currently asking myself: Should Calendar be part of the initial release, or should I offer it later as an update?
The more I work on it, the more I wonder how much it will actually be used. Is Calendar really an important requirement, or will most developers primarily use MAIL.X for email?
I may put this question directly to the community with a poll before making the decision. And there may be another possibility for the future: Google Tasks integration, potentially combined with my Kanban project management solution.
For now, I am still weighing the options — and that is exactly what Build in Public is about: sharing the development process, including the decisions that are not yet made.

🚀 MAIL.X – More than just sending emails
In this video, I’m showing the current development status of the MAIL.X GUI and some of its email features.

The GUI was actually not the original goal. It developed as a by-product. The real heart of MAIL.X is the COM DLL, providing email and Google Calendar functionality directly to VBA and VBScript.

With MAIL.X, you can:
📧 Send emails from VBA
📨 Send serial/mass emails
🎨 Create professional HTML templates with the built-in WYSIWYG editor
📖 Read emails
📅 Create, edit and delete Google Calendar events

Why MAIL.X?

The new Outlook is replacing Classic Outlook and no longer provides the traditional VBA API many developers rely on.
MAIL.X closes that gap.

It does not use Outlook as a transport application — MAIL.X handles the communication itself.

💡 MAIL.X is not intended to replace Outlook.
It is a simple, functional and powerful VBA partner for handling emails and Google Calendar directly from your applications.

The GUI is simply an easy way to use and demonstrate the functionality provided by the COM DLL.
A separate video showing the Google Calendar features will follow later.
This is the current development status — and there is more to come. 🚀

🚀 MAIL.X – More than just sending emails

In this video, I’m showing the Google Calendar functionality of the MAIL.X GUI.

You can see how MAIL.X can be used to:

📅 Create calendar events
✏️ Edit existing events
🗑️ Delete events
🔎 Work with Google Calendar directly from the MAIL.X GUI

The GUI was actually not the original goal of MAIL.X. It developed as a by-product and is mainly used to demonstrate and test the functionality of the underlying COM DLL.
The real purpose of MAIL.X is to bring email and Google Calendar functionality directly into VBA and VBScript, without relying on Outlook.

💡 MAIL.X is not intended to replace Outlook.

It is a simple and powerful way for developers to integrate email and calendar functionality into their own applications.

This video gives you a first look at the Google Calendar features and the current development status of MAIL.X.

And there is more to come. 🚀