merge to email not finishing the job

[ReneeV]

I am in the process of trying to merge 700+ names into emails. I open
an email (or Word doc), go through the entire process and reach the
end where it says "Merge Electronic Mail". I click on it, it asks me
field for the TO, the subject, format (HTML) and which records. I
select All. Then at the bottom of the email it says Merging Records
and counts. Then nothing. No new email pages pop up, nothing shows
up in the To or Subject lines of the existing document. It's as if I
have done nothing.

Unlike when I am merging a regular document and it creates a new page
for each recipient.

Help?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

a. Which version of Word?
b. What is your e-mail client (Outlook? Outlook Express? Something else?)
and which version? NB, I do not believe that HTML format merges to email
will work with any e-mail client except the full Outlook.
c. Can you try a test with a small number of test addresses but use the
plain text option instead of HTML - if you are using Outlook, you will
probably see a number of security-related messages, but try to battle
through them.

 

[ReneeV]

a) 2003
b) Outlook 2003
c) IT WORKED with the plain text. Is there a way to make it work with
HTML? I really would prefer for my letter to be formatted. Also, I
didn't anticipate it to send immediately. I kind of figured I would
have an option to hit "send". Scary. I guess I better be ready to
send before I merge.

Another question, if I wanted to insert an attachment, do I do that
during the create email message process?

Thank you for your help/

 

[Peter Jamieson]

c) IT WORKED with the plain text.

OK,

Is there a way to make it work with
HTML?

I don't know for sure.

Are you sure it is not actually sending straight away? (You should not
expect to see any e-mail form appear in Word as you would if you went into
Word's File|Send options). Or are any HTML format messages reaching the
Outbox but not being sent?

If nothing is appearing in Outlook, I suspect there is probably a
configuration error of some kind. however, it may be in the MAPI system that
Outlook uses rather than Outlook or Word. You could start by trying e.g.
Outlook Help|Detect and repair (make sure you have your Office CD/DVD). But
for example, are you aware of havig more than one email profile? (In Windows
XP you can check in Windows Start|Control Panel|Mail|Show Profiles)

I guess I better be ready to
send before I merge.

There's something to be said for setting Outlook not to send automatically
before you do a merge to email.

Another question, if I wanted to insert an attachment, do I do that
during the create email message process?

You can send your mail merge main document as an attachment (with a
completely blank message) by selecting that option rather than HTML or Plain
Text. otherwise, I'd see how you get on with Doug Robbins' article at

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MailMerge/MergeWithAttachments.htm

 

[ReneeV]

when I did it through plain text, they immediately went to the
Outbox. When I did it through HTML, nothing happened.

Only one profile.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

As you have no control over how the recipient views your email, there is not
a lot of point slaving over trying to send it in HTML format. If you are
really concerned about how the recipient sees the message, then you should
send it as a .pdf attachment. The addin that you can down load from fellow
MVP Graham Mayor's website at:

http://www.gmayor.com/individual_merge_letters.htm

can be used to create a .pdf file for each record in the data source. Then
you can use the method to which Peter pointed you in his response to send
each of those .pdf files as an attachment to an email created by the merge
process.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[ReneeV]

Thanks everyone for all your help. This certainly has been a learning
experience and it seems that it is more work than I thought. I think
I am going to import my excel file into outlook and try to send the
messages in groups. Hopefully, my ISP will allow a large amount of
recipients without thinking I am a spammer. If that doesnt work, I'll
be back to trying to merge to email.