Mail merge with FrontPage

[xfile]

Hi,

I think it's not possible to use mail merge function in FP for sending
e-mail newsletters, but I could be wrong.

Does anyone know a good way for using FP (2003) to send e-mail newsletters
similar to mail merge in Word 2003 - without programming?

What we are doing now is to use FP (our primary web development tool) to
come up the e-mail newsletters.

We then use Word 2003 to edit it again since some format will be lost, and
then use mail merge function in Word 2003 with data source connected to our
site's database and perform merge function for chosen subscribers (e.g. they
choose to receive newsletters).

Although it works but not very satisfied, since we have to save the page to
a local folder, and in the process, some format will be changed during the
transition from FP to Word. In addition, using data source can be slow and
luckily, we don't have a large mailing list at this time.

We know that we can send web page directly from FP but this is not the same
as using mail merge for which we could personalize the mail.

So anyone has a good suggestion about using FP for mail merge?

PS: Also, is there a way that could set FP for inserting as absolute links
instead of relative links, which is by default? We could not find any
settings for this. It takes a lot of time for us to change from relative
links to absolute links when we doing pages that need absolute links.

Many thanks.

 

[Chris Leeds, MVP-FrontPage]

here's a real nice email script that I've used, and you could also easily
use with FrontPage:
http://www.emailmover.com/

HTH

--
Chris Leeds,
Microsoft MVP-FrontPage

ContentSeed: great tool for web masters,
a fantastic convenience for site owners.
http://contentseed.com/

 

[xfile]

Hi,

Thanks. Wish can do it in FP, but will see how that works.

Once again, thanks for your advise.

 

[p c]

1. For sending the newsletter. You can buy one of the suggested
solutions or create your own if you want to learn ASP.

* You will need to store the email address in an Access dbase or aother db.
* Store your email newsletter as a web page in a designated folder
* Learn how to send email using ASP and CDO or an email component and
how to attach files
* Create the page that can send the n'ltter.

2. For converting relative to absolute links

Quick way, open the page in FP, go to HTML view and do a global find and
replace as follows.

Find href="
Replace with: href="http://yoursite/

...PC

 

[xfile]

Hi,

Many thanks.

I wish there is much easier way for doing the absolute links. The suggested
method is similar what we are doing now, and we also just change it in the
code page. This is time-consuming though.

ASP and email components are some of us doing now, but for an average
worker, it is also time-consuming if not unfriendly.

Since FP is also designed for average office workers for convenience, it
should have these functions, say, a setting for the absolute vs. relative
links, and mail merge in Word 2003.

But many thanks for your kind suggestions.