In my job, I need to convert the same four emails to pdfs every day, with specific names including the date. I need to use the Adobe PDFMaker addin in Microsoft Outlook to do this. I wrote a Macro to try to automate this, and I almost have it working. It properly calls the PDFMaker addin, but when it tries to save, I just get “An Error Occurred while saving the Adobe PDF File”. I’m not sure if that’s an issue with my code or just an issue trying to save, but it gives this error message every time.

An Error Occurred while saving the Adobe PDF File

I’ve included my macro below. The things in [brackets] are names I replaced for anonymity/security/privacy/etc, so ignore the errors they would cause. (I’ll also admit that I used chatGPT to help my write this code.)

Sub SaveEmailsAsPDFWithPDFMaker()

    ' Object variables
    Dim objMail As MailItem
    Dim pdfMaker As Object
    ' String variables
    Dim pdfFileName As String
    Dim savePath As String
    Dim fullSavePath As String
    Dim emailReceivedDate As String
    Dim emailSubject As String
    ' Integer variables
    Dim i As Integer
    Dim emailCount As Integer

    ' Define the save path
    savePath = "C:Users[me]Documentsmacro test"

    ' Get the PDFMaker object from COM add-ins
    On Error Resume Next
    Set pdfMaker = Application.COMAddIns.Item("PDFMOutlook.PDFMOutlook").Object
    On Error GoTo 0

    ' send message if PDFMaker is not available
    If pdfMaker Is Nothing Then
        MsgBox "PDFMaker add-in is not available.", vbCritical
        Exit Sub
    End If

    ' Get the count of selected emails
    emailCount = Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Count

    ' Loop through selected emails
    For i = 1 To emailCount
        If TypeOf Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(i) Is MailItem Then
            Set objMail = Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(i)

            ' Get the subject of the email
            emailSubject = objMail.Subject
            Debug.Print "Processing email: " & emailSubject

            ' Get the received date of the email in the desired format
            emailReceivedDate = Format(objMail.ReceivedTime, "m-d-yy")
            Debug.Print "Received date: " & emailReceivedDate

            ' Generate the file name based on the subject line
            If Left(emailSubject, 47) = "[Email 1 Subject]" Then
                pdfFileName = "[Email 1] " & emailReceivedDate & ".pdf"
            ElseIf Left(emailSubject, 14) = "[Email 2 Subject]" Then
                pdfFileName = "[Email 2] " & emailReceivedDate & ".pdf"
            ElseIf Left(emailSubject, 18) = "[Email 3 Subject]" Then
                pdfFileName = "[Email 3] " & emailReceivedDate & ".pdf"
            ElseIf Left(emailSubject, 17) = "[Email 4 Subject]" Then
                pdfFileName = "[Email 4] " & emailReceivedDate & ".pdf"
            Else
                MsgBox "Email '" & emailSubject & "' does not match expected subject formats.", vbExclamation
                GoTo ContinueLoop
            End If

            ' Convert email to PDF and save
            On Error Resume Next
            pdfMaker.CreatePDF savePath & pdfFileName
            
            'Error message if it fails to convert
            If Err.Number <> 0 Then
                MsgBox "Failed to convert email '" & emailSubject & "' to PDF. Error " & Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description, vbCritical
                Err.Clear
            End If
            On Error GoTo 0


ContinueLoop:
        End If
    Next i

    MsgBox "Selected emails have been processed.", vbInformation
End Sub

I did a lot of troubleshooting to get the code to this working point. I’m at a loss, frankly.