Word for Mac Macro can't create outook email

Question

I have zero experience on Mac or Mac OS. I have a macro used by folks in our office who run Word for windows that copies the current word (for windows) document to the clipboard, opens outlook, creates a new message, pastes in the current contents of word, fills in the email address and subject. But when I run add the macro to the user with a mac and try to run it, I get the error message Runtime 429 - "Active X can't create object'

Sub OpenEmailWithAttachment()
    ' Declare variables
    Dim OutApp As Object
    Dim OutMail As Object
    Dim FileName As String
    Dim EmailAddress As String
    Dim EmailSubject As String
    Dim AttachmentPath As String
    Dim WordApp As Object
    Dim WordDoc As Object
    
    ' Set the email address and attachment file path
    EmailAddress = ActiveDocument.MailMerge.DataSource.DataFields("Email").Value
    ' AttachmentPath = "path/attachment.pdf"
 
    ' Set the email subject
    EmailSubject = "Request" & ActiveDocument.MailMerge.DataSource.DataFields("RqId").Value
  
    ' Create a new Outlook email message
    Set OutApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")

** the macro stops on the previous line with error Runtime 429 - "Active X can't create object' 

    Set OutMail = OutApp.CreateItem(0)
    
    ' Set the email recipient, subject, and body
    With OutMail
        .To = EmailAddress
        .Subject = EmailSubject
        
        ' Copy the contents of the current document to the email body
        Set WordApp = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
        Set WordDoc = WordApp.ActiveDocument
        WordDoc.Content.Copy
        .Display
        .GetInspector.WordEditor.Range.Paste
        
        ' Attach the separate PDF file to the email
        ' .Attachments.Add AttachmentPath
        
        ' Display the email and send it
        .Display
       
    End With
    
    ' Clean up the Outlook objects
    Set OutMail = Nothing
    Set OutApp = Nothing
End Sub

I have googled the error 429 and to be honest I don't understand what Active X is and why the macro won't run. It is crazy that Visual basic code that runs on windows perfectly won't run on a mac but that is why I here, hoping someone who understands the mind of mac can point me in the right direction.

Answer 1

Mac applications are single instance, so if Outlook is already running, you can't create a new object.

Dim outlookApp As Object
Set outlookApp = GetObject(, "Outlook.Application")
If outlookApp Is Nothing Then 
  Set outlookApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
End If

That is what you actually do in case of Word. See You receive run-time error 429 when you automate Office applications for more information about the error message.

The MAC OS uses AppleScript for automating Office applications because there is no ActiveX technology available for the Mac OS. But the error codes are remains the same as well as reasons why you get such errors.

Also starting from Office 2016 for Mac VBA supports commands such as GrantAccessToMultipleFiles and AppleScriptTask that are not supported in other versions of Office. If your solution targets multiple versions of Office, Microsoft recommend that you use conditional compilation. Use MAC_OFFICE_VERSION to determine which version of VBA the user is running. The #If Mac conditional is the same in Office for Mac 2011.