Tip 161: Custom Field Formulas

A reader asks:

I have added a custom field on contacts which calculates the contact's age using this formula:

IIf([Birthday]<>"None",DateDiff("yyyy",[Birthday],Date())-IIf(DateDiff("d",CDate(Month([Birthday]) & "/" & Day([Birthday]) & "/" & Year(Date())),Date())<0,1,0),"")

I see a recurring event on the birthday in the Calendar which says:
Contact Name's Birthday

Is there any way to do this so the subject reads:
Contact Name's Birthday (Age)

Sorry, no. Outlook doesn't support reading a field to create a subject.  [Updated: see method below to change the subject line.]

You could use code to create the birthdays, but rather than creating recurring appointments, you'll create individual appointments. If you aren't a code writing kind of guy, you can create birthday appointments in Excel, using Excels features to increment the subject fields then import them into Outlook. (Export one to learn the fields you need to use.)

Note that if you use a table view, you can display the age field in the view. Yeah, I know, it just isn't the same.

For a sample contact, see
To calculate the age of a Microsoft Outlook contact

See How to create a custom appointment form that displays a person's current age in Microsoft Outlook calendar for a method you can use to enable a dynamic subject field. Note that for birthdays and other recurring events, it will show the person's current age if you view past or future years, not the age on a specific birthday.

Published July 22, 2004. Last updated on September 12, 2013.