Can't Connect Word Mail Merge to Mail Client

[takalevy]

I've created a mail merge file using Word 2007 and Excel 2007. It prints
great, but I cannot get it to send by e-mail. I'm sure problem is that I
have to define mail client and somehow attach it to Word. I have Office 2007
Pro Plus installed. I've configured Outlook 2007 to work as an IMAP client
on GMAIL and it works perfectly and have set it up as default mail client. I
also have Thunderbird 2.0 installed. When I go to Mailings >Finish & Merge >
Send E- Mail Messages the 'Merge to E-mail screen comes up and I've set the
To: Field to EMAIL which is the field in my data that contains e-mail
addresses, I've also set the Send Records to Current Record and clicked ok.
The Merge to E-mail screen closes and nothing happens. I can't find
anything in the help screens to resolve problem. Any suggestions would be
appreciated.

 

[Graham Mayor]

See http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk/t0002.htm for a start.
I wonder if it would work any better if you setup Gmail's POP server option
instead of IMAP?

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Peter Jamieson]

If you are trying to merge to email using HTML format, I suggest you try a
test merge using plain text format,
a. to see if that makes any difference (you will have to respond to the
security dialog boxes that appear when you use plain text fomat)
b. because at least one user has reported that doing a merge using plain
text resulted in a working merge to HTML scenario (although others have
reported serious problems with Word 2007 merge to HTML).

 

[takalevy]

Thanks very much. I got things working. I think the issue was that while I
was using 2007 Outlook, Excel & Word, my files were in the 2003 format so
2007 products were working in a 2003 emulation mode. I did a number of
things at once, but I think this is what I think fixed things. As for POP vs
IMAP, I prefer IMAP because my files stay on the server in case I use more
than one system to access files. I've got Outlook setup as an IMAP client
and things work fine now.

Thanks for your help

 

[takalevy]

I was using the HTML format and I don't think that was the issue. I think
that since I was trying to use the files that I used last year under Office
2003 (with hard copy printed output) in Office 2007 the suite was working in
a 2003 emulation mode. I made a number of changes at once, so I'm not
positive, but I believe that when I saved files in 2007 mode and reloaded
them, things worked. I tried creating a simple 4 row test matrix using Excel
2007 and created a simple template in Word 2007 and they worked fine, that's
why I tried saving my older files in 2007 format and retrying things. The
older files did a printed mail merge just fine (as they did using 2003) and
that threw my off the problem. Documentation says that you must use all 2007
applications to to e-mail merge, but I didn't see a note that my files had to
be updated to 2007.

Thanks very much for your help.

Bob

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Glad you got it working, and thanks for the useful feedback.

 

[takalevy]

I just created a test word and test excel database and saved both in 2003
format. I then attempted to do the merge and got message that Outlook wasn't
my default mail client. I changed this and merge proceeded, so apparently
the old file type wasn't the problem. Previously I did not get msg that
Outlook needed to be default client, but when I got things working I did set
Outlook to be default mail client.

One non-related comment: I really dislike the new interface. It's very
complex and difficult to use and since products don't come with manuals it's
a real time waster. For my needs Office 2003 (or Open Office/Star Office) is
a better product that lacks only the e-mail merge.

An example of my concerns: On 2003 you could see which files were loaded
and switch between them from the main menu bar. I finally found this
capability under View > Switch Windows.

Thanks so much for your help.

Bob

 

[Peter Jamieson]

For my needs Office 2003 (or Open Office/Star Office) is

a better product that lacks only the e-mail merge.

It is probably too late now, but Office 2003 was/is also capable of merge to
e-mail. However, running a mixture of Word and Outlook where the versions
differ is not recommended (e.g. Word 2003 + Outlook 2007) because various
capabilities are lost.

 

[takalevy]

Thanks, I wasn't aware. I may just dump 2007 and go back to 2003. So far, I
haven't seen a single feature that is useful to me and it's a whole lot more
difficult to use. I believe that the person who designed the new interface
should be hung! A note: I will begin exchanging MS Access data bases with
another person, and he is using 2007, so I may have to grit my teeth and stay
with 2007. I'm the treasurer for a non-profit organization and Microsoft was
very generous and I didn't pay too much for 2007 and wanted to stay current.
The difficulty of using 2007 was a shock to me. But, I can learn it if
necessary.

Bob