Mail Merge Word 2003

[kbruster]

How do you make Word 2003 mail merge work with Exchange 2003

 

[Peter Jamieson]

It depends on what you mean.

Assuming you want to mailmerge to e-mail, there are two different things:
a. what is the data source for the merge (typically, a list of email
addresses)
b. what does Word use to send the e-mails.

There is also the question of how Word connects to the data source in (a).

Often, Exhange users use Outlook (the full version, not Outlook Express),
use an Outlook Contacts list as their data source, and send their e-mails
via Outlook as well. In that case, a good way to work can be to select some
contacts in Outlook, and use Outlook Tools|Mail Merge... to initiate the
merge.

However, it sounds as if that is not what you are looking for. Maybe you use
something like OWA (Outlook Web Access) to interact with Exchange? Or maybe
you need to use addresses from the Exchange Global Address List that you
can't get into Word via Outlook?

Perhaps you could say a bit more about what you're trying to do.

Peter Jamieson

If they use something like Outlook Web Access to interact with Exchange,
they would not be able to do either of those things. Also, the Exchange
Global Address List is not usually

However,There are two different things:
a. Where does Word It depends on what you mean. Usually, you work via
Outlook (the full version, not Outlook Express).

 

[kbruster]

Peter

We are using Outlook 2003, with Exchange 2003 and Global Address List. What
we are trying to do is create a mail merge that uses the GAL. So far I have
not been able to get it to connect with my mail server.

I would us contacts but I figure exporting 4,000+ entries to contacts might
not be a very efficient way to do things. I have tried this from both Word
and Outlook.

Any help would be great, thanks.

Karen

 

[Peter Jamieson]

The following is probably worth a try, but be aware that I've never had to
use this for real.

The approach is to use Access to create a linked table that points to the
GA, create a query that references that linked table, and use that query as
the data source.

This can be done without Access (I think), just using Jet, but it's a lot
easier with Access.

However, I don't use this technique for real - you may find tht there are,
for example, security problems, and that you do not see Unicode characters
in your data (e.g. some accented characters or non-Latin scripts). Also, you
only get some fields.

Anyway, you can do it as follows
a. open Access
b. create an empty database
c. click File|"Get External Data"|"Link Tables"
d. In "Files of Type", locate and select Exchange()

You should then see a list of address books etc.

e. Select "Address Books|"Global Address List" and click Next
f. provide a name for the table in Access (e.g. leave it as "Global Address
List") and click Finish

Access should create the Linked table, which you can open and view in the
usual way.

For Word to access this as a data source, you need to create an Access query
that selects all the data in the new table. I leave you to do that, but in
essence, the SQL for the query would be

SELECT [Global Address List].*
FROM [Global Address List];

Name the query "gal" or whatever you like. Close the database.

In Word, use Select Data Source or th Merge Wizard to connect to the gal
query in your new database.

You'll probably need one of those for each machine or user who needs to
merge from the GAL.I would guess that if those machines do not have Access,
you can probably create the .mdb on a machine that does and copy to the user
machines, but when you're setting up the linked table there's a question
about whether to store MAPI profile information, which might either
a. mean that you end up copying a particular user's credentials around or
b. that you have to create each one on the target machine.

Peter Jamieson