I wish to develop my idea further and need help - I've been playing
with it but I'm not an expert

Presently I fire up the below macro when I have an email highlighted
and it enters the "Dear Joe" etc in the email body.

I'm wondering if it would be possible to apply this slightly
differently. To start an email i.e. new or click reply, ensure that
there is a recipient in the 'To' box, e.g. to "Joe", then click the
macro to complete the email with
"Dear Joe

Regards
Mark"

(Thanks again to members of this discussion board for help in creating
the below macro.)

Cheers
Mark

Sub Dear_Name()
Dim myItem As Outlook.MailItem
Dim NewMsg As Outlook.MailItem
' get valid ref to current item
On Error Resume Next
Select Case TypeName(Application.ActiveWindow)
Case "Explorer"
Set myItem = ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
myItem.Display
Case "Inspector"
Set myItem = ActiveInspector.CurrentItem
Case Else
End Select
On Error GoTo 0

If myItem Is Nothing Then
MsgBox "Could not use current item. Please select or open a
single email.", _
vbInformation
GoTo ExitProc
End If
Set NewMsg = myItem.Reply
With NewMsg
NewMsg.BodyFormat = olFormatHTML
.HTMLBody = "<span style=""font-size:11.0pt;font-family: Calibri
(Body);color:#1F497D""><p>Regards, Mark <br /> " & vbCr & vbCr & vbCr
& vbCr & "</p>" & .HTMLBody
.HTMLBody = "<span style=""font-size:11.0pt;font-family: Calibri
(Body);color:#1F497D""><p> <br />" & "</p>" & .HTMLBody
.HTMLBody = "<span style=""font-family : Calibri (Body);font-size :
11pt;color:#1F497D""><p>Dear " & Left$(myItem.SenderName, InStr(1,
myItem.SenderName, " ") - 1) & ",</p></span>" & .HTMLBody
End With
myItem.Close olDiscard
NewMsg.Display
ExitProc:
Set myItem = Nothing
Set NewMsg = Nothing
End Sub