Word 2000 and Email Merge in HTML Format

D

Dweezil38

I always thought this was easy but evidently not!

Here's what I'm trying to do:

I have an Access 2000 Database with a query that runs and gets Customer
records based on a record showing on a Data Entry Form, eg: Get all records
where Customer Category = Forms![MyDataEntryForm]![CustomerCategory]

Now I want to create a Word 2000 Form Letter that will merge the data from
the query results and email it out to each individual that has an Email
address. (The Access Query only selects Customers that have a valid email
address)

The Email needs to be sent in HTML Format.

I'm using Outlook Express 2000!

Problems: I understand that my Access Database can not have a unique
Application Title. I also know that when selecting the Data Source for the
Word Form Letter that I should use "MS Access Database via ODBC (*.mdb)".
This should set up the Word document to not open another copy of the Database
but instead use the copy that is currently open. Is this right?? Should I use
the "MS Access Database via DDE(*.mdb: *mde)"??? I have found that I get an
error when I select the "Database via ODBC" and choose the query (View) that
I want to use. The error says "Word unable to open data Source"?

If I use "MS Access Database via DDE(*.mdb: *mde)" it will link and merge
the data but when I go to the Merge Dialog box in Word, it does not indicate
that I can specify HTML Format for the email. When I do click on the Merge
button to initiate the merge and send each email letter, I get a message for
each letter to be sent saying "A program is attempting to send the following
email message on your behalf, with button to Send and another to Do not Send.
How can I get around this message poping up for each email letter?

Lastly, once I get to the point of having the email to go the Outbox in
Outlook Express it is not in an HTML Format but instead in plain text????

Wordy question I know but.... how to I get an Access Query and Word to do an
email mail merge and send out each letter in HTML Format without either
program blowing up and having the user click on some dialog box message for
each letter????

Thanks in advanced. Dweezil
 
D

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

To get around the popup about a message being sent download the "Express
ClickYes" utility that is available as a free download from:

http://www.contextmagic.com/express-clickyes/
Express ClickYes is a tiny program that sits in the taskbar and clicks the
Yes button on behalf of you, when Outlook's Security Guard opens prompt
dialog saying that a program is trying to send an email with Outlook or
access its address book. You can suspend/resume it by double-clicking its
taskbar icon. Developers can automate its behaviour by sending special
messages.

As far as your HTML issue is concerned, I would never bother with it as you
really have no control over how the recipient reads their email.

Rather, I would send out the information as an attachment to an email (and
in .pdf format if I was really concerned about the appearance).

Get the addin for creating individual letters from a mailmerge in the
"Individual Merge Letters" item on fellow MVP Graham Mayor's website at:

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

and to send each one out as an attachment to a mail merge,

See the article "Mail Merge to E-mail with Attachments" at

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




--
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

Dweezil38 said:
I always thought this was easy but evidently not!

Here's what I'm trying to do:

I have an Access 2000 Database with a query that runs and gets Customer
records based on a record showing on a Data Entry Form, eg: Get all
records
where Customer Category = Forms![MyDataEntryForm]![CustomerCategory]

Now I want to create a Word 2000 Form Letter that will merge the data from
the query results and email it out to each individual that has an Email
address. (The Access Query only selects Customers that have a valid email
address)

The Email needs to be sent in HTML Format.

I'm using Outlook Express 2000!

Problems: I understand that my Access Database can not have a unique
Application Title. I also know that when selecting the Data Source for the
Word Form Letter that I should use "MS Access Database via ODBC (*.mdb)".
This should set up the Word document to not open another copy of the
Database
but instead use the copy that is currently open. Is this right?? Should I
use
the "MS Access Database via DDE(*.mdb: *mde)"??? I have found that I get
an
error when I select the "Database via ODBC" and choose the query (View)
that
I want to use. The error says "Word unable to open data Source"?

If I use "MS Access Database via DDE(*.mdb: *mde)" it will link and merge
the data but when I go to the Merge Dialog box in Word, it does not
indicate
that I can specify HTML Format for the email. When I do click on the Merge
button to initiate the merge and send each email letter, I get a message
for
each letter to be sent saying "A program is attempting to send the
following
email message on your behalf, with button to Send and another to Do not
Send.
How can I get around this message poping up for each email letter?

Lastly, once I get to the point of having the email to go the Outbox in
Outlook Express it is not in an HTML Format but instead in plain text????

Wordy question I know but.... how to I get an Access Query and Word to do
an
email mail merge and send out each letter in HTML Format without either
program blowing up and having the user click on some dialog box message
for
each letter????

Thanks in advanced. Dweezil
 
P

Peter Jamieson

In addition to Doug's comments about HTML, FWIW Word 2000 cannot merge to
e-mail using HTML format and no version of Word can merge to e-mail using
HTML format via any version of Outlook Express.

On the issue of getting the data, if the query is the one you describe that
references your Form's category field, then I do not think you will be able
to get the data that is currently selected in the Form (you might be able to
get it via DDE, but I don't know how you guarantee that it is the currently
selected data. As for ODBC, the thing is that Access really consists of two
parts: the thing you can see, i.e. (1) a program that lets you design and
run all those forms and reports, and (2) a data engine called Jet that
stores and supplies all the data. Queries that reference things like
Forms![MyDataEntryForm]![CustomerCategory] make sense to (1) (at least when
the relevant form is open). DDE gets its data via (1). However, ODBC only
looks at (2) and this sort of query is essentially meaningless as far as it
is concerned.

So what can you do to get the data you need? Well, what you probably need is
a button on the form that lets the user export the data they are currently
looking at, either to a table in Access (e.g. you clear the table, then
re-populate it), or to an external file that Word can open. I can't tell you
exactly how to do that, but if you export to a table within Access you need
to be sure that only one person is doing this at a time.
--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

Dweezil38 said:
I always thought this was easy but evidently not!

Here's what I'm trying to do:

I have an Access 2000 Database with a query that runs and gets Customer
records based on a record showing on a Data Entry Form, eg: Get all
records
where Customer Category = Forms![MyDataEntryForm]![CustomerCategory]

Now I want to create a Word 2000 Form Letter that will merge the data from
the query results and email it out to each individual that has an Email
address. (The Access Query only selects Customers that have a valid email
address)

The Email needs to be sent in HTML Format.

I'm using Outlook Express 2000!

Problems: I understand that my Access Database can not have a unique
Application Title. I also know that when selecting the Data Source for the
Word Form Letter that I should use "MS Access Database via ODBC (*.mdb)".
This should set up the Word document to not open another copy of the
Database
but instead use the copy that is currently open. Is this right?? Should I
use
the "MS Access Database via DDE(*.mdb: *mde)"??? I have found that I get
an
error when I select the "Database via ODBC" and choose the query (View)
that
I want to use. The error says "Word unable to open data Source"?

If I use "MS Access Database via DDE(*.mdb: *mde)" it will link and merge
the data but when I go to the Merge Dialog box in Word, it does not
indicate
that I can specify HTML Format for the email. When I do click on the Merge
button to initiate the merge and send each email letter, I get a message
for
each letter to be sent saying "A program is attempting to send the
following
email message on your behalf, with button to Send and another to Do not
Send.
How can I get around this message poping up for each email letter?

Lastly, once I get to the point of having the email to go the Outbox in
Outlook Express it is not in an HTML Format but instead in plain text????

Wordy question I know but.... how to I get an Access Query and Word to do
an
email mail merge and send out each letter in HTML Format without either
program blowing up and having the user click on some dialog box message
for
each letter????

Thanks in advanced. Dweezil
 
D

Dweezil38

Thanks Doug

There are a couple of things still not quite right. First off the
express-clickyes does not response to the Outlook Express warning message I'm
getting. For each email being send out I'm still getting an Outlook Express
dialog box saying "A Program is attempting to send the following email
message on your behalf" with a Send and Do Not Send button. It this because
clickyes is looking for a YES button and not a button that says SEND??? Also
why when I send an individual email from Word do I not get this message?

Also, I understand that I can write some code to send out the email letter
individually, but why would I do that when that is the whole purpose of
Word's Mail Merge feature. I other reason I don't code it, is because I'm
inserting other information from the database throughout the letter, specific
to the individual receiving it. Word is just soooo much easier for doing this
then hard coding it.

Attachment aren't really the solution I'm looking for either as many
customers receiving this email have spam checkers that will not accept any
email messages with attachments, no matter what format they are in.
Unfortunately I would never know who did not receive the email because of
their spam checker.

As for not sending in HMTL format I can live with that, though it is
unfortunately as Word does specify that it will send emails in HTML format.
It does do it for individual email letters. I guess this is a Word to Outlook
Express incompatiblity. I'm sure if I was using Outlook the full program and
not Express it would send an email in HTML?? But still, individual letters
work with HTML format and emails from mail merge don't???

Thanks for the response though, I'll continue to work out a solution somehow.

Dweezil

Doug Robbins - Word MVP said:
To get around the popup about a message being sent download the "Express
ClickYes" utility that is available as a free download from:

http://www.contextmagic.com/express-clickyes/
Express ClickYes is a tiny program that sits in the taskbar and clicks the
Yes button on behalf of you, when Outlook's Security Guard opens prompt
dialog saying that a program is trying to send an email with Outlook or
access its address book. You can suspend/resume it by double-clicking its
taskbar icon. Developers can automate its behaviour by sending special
messages.

As far as your HTML issue is concerned, I would never bother with it as you
really have no control over how the recipient reads their email.

Rather, I would send out the information as an attachment to an email (and
in .pdf format if I was really concerned about the appearance).

Get the addin for creating individual letters from a mailmerge in the
"Individual Merge Letters" item on fellow MVP Graham Mayor's website at:

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

and to send each one out as an attachment to a mail merge,

See the article "Mail Merge to E-mail with Attachments" at

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




--
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

Dweezil38 said:
I always thought this was easy but evidently not!

Here's what I'm trying to do:

I have an Access 2000 Database with a query that runs and gets Customer
records based on a record showing on a Data Entry Form, eg: Get all
records
where Customer Category = Forms![MyDataEntryForm]![CustomerCategory]

Now I want to create a Word 2000 Form Letter that will merge the data from
the query results and email it out to each individual that has an Email
address. (The Access Query only selects Customers that have a valid email
address)

The Email needs to be sent in HTML Format.

I'm using Outlook Express 2000!

Problems: I understand that my Access Database can not have a unique
Application Title. I also know that when selecting the Data Source for the
Word Form Letter that I should use "MS Access Database via ODBC (*.mdb)".
This should set up the Word document to not open another copy of the
Database
but instead use the copy that is currently open. Is this right?? Should I
use
the "MS Access Database via DDE(*.mdb: *mde)"??? I have found that I get
an
error when I select the "Database via ODBC" and choose the query (View)
that
I want to use. The error says "Word unable to open data Source"?

If I use "MS Access Database via DDE(*.mdb: *mde)" it will link and merge
the data but when I go to the Merge Dialog box in Word, it does not
indicate
that I can specify HTML Format for the email. When I do click on the Merge
button to initiate the merge and send each email letter, I get a message
for
each letter to be sent saying "A program is attempting to send the
following
email message on your behalf, with button to Send and another to Do not
Send.
How can I get around this message poping up for each email letter?

Lastly, once I get to the point of having the email to go the Outbox in
Outlook Express it is not in an HTML Format but instead in plain text????

Wordy question I know but.... how to I get an Access Query and Word to do
an
email mail merge and send out each letter in HTML Format without either
program blowing up and having the user click on some dialog box message
for
each letter????

Thanks in advanced. Dweezil
 
D

Dweezil38

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the response.

I did use your solution of creating a separate table for the merge data in
Access. This does work a little better. But as for the HTML format problem,
why does an individual email letter sent from Word 2000 send it out in HTML
format to Outlook Express??

thanks Dweezil

Peter Jamieson said:
In addition to Doug's comments about HTML, FWIW Word 2000 cannot merge to
e-mail using HTML format and no version of Word can merge to e-mail using
HTML format via any version of Outlook Express.

On the issue of getting the data, if the query is the one you describe that
references your Form's category field, then I do not think you will be able
to get the data that is currently selected in the Form (you might be able to
get it via DDE, but I don't know how you guarantee that it is the currently
selected data. As for ODBC, the thing is that Access really consists of two
parts: the thing you can see, i.e. (1) a program that lets you design and
run all those forms and reports, and (2) a data engine called Jet that
stores and supplies all the data. Queries that reference things like
Forms![MyDataEntryForm]![CustomerCategory] make sense to (1) (at least when
the relevant form is open). DDE gets its data via (1). However, ODBC only
looks at (2) and this sort of query is essentially meaningless as far as it
is concerned.

So what can you do to get the data you need? Well, what you probably need is
a button on the form that lets the user export the data they are currently
looking at, either to a table in Access (e.g. you clear the table, then
re-populate it), or to an external file that Word can open. I can't tell you
exactly how to do that, but if you export to a table within Access you need
to be sure that only one person is doing this at a time.
--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

Dweezil38 said:
I always thought this was easy but evidently not!

Here's what I'm trying to do:

I have an Access 2000 Database with a query that runs and gets Customer
records based on a record showing on a Data Entry Form, eg: Get all
records
where Customer Category = Forms![MyDataEntryForm]![CustomerCategory]

Now I want to create a Word 2000 Form Letter that will merge the data from
the query results and email it out to each individual that has an Email
address. (The Access Query only selects Customers that have a valid email
address)

The Email needs to be sent in HTML Format.

I'm using Outlook Express 2000!

Problems: I understand that my Access Database can not have a unique
Application Title. I also know that when selecting the Data Source for the
Word Form Letter that I should use "MS Access Database via ODBC (*.mdb)".
This should set up the Word document to not open another copy of the
Database
but instead use the copy that is currently open. Is this right?? Should I
use
the "MS Access Database via DDE(*.mdb: *mde)"??? I have found that I get
an
error when I select the "Database via ODBC" and choose the query (View)
that
I want to use. The error says "Word unable to open data Source"?

If I use "MS Access Database via DDE(*.mdb: *mde)" it will link and merge
the data but when I go to the Merge Dialog box in Word, it does not
indicate
that I can specify HTML Format for the email. When I do click on the Merge
button to initiate the merge and send each email letter, I get a message
for
each letter to be sent saying "A program is attempting to send the
following
email message on your behalf, with button to Send and another to Do not
Send.
How can I get around this message poping up for each email letter?

Lastly, once I get to the point of having the email to go the Outbox in
Outlook Express it is not in an HTML Format but instead in plain text????

Wordy question I know but.... how to I get an Access Query and Word to do
an
email mail merge and send out each letter in HTML Format without either
program blowing up and having the user click on some dialog box message
for
each letter????

Thanks in advanced. Dweezil
 
P

Peter Jamieson

why does an individual email letter sent from Word 2000 send it out in
HTML
format to Outlook Express??

I can only assume that when Microsoft made the changes to Word 2000 they did
it for one part of the software and not the other.

I don't know for sure why, even in later versions, Word Mail Merge will only
merge to HTML format if you are using the full Outlook. But my guess is that
a. it uses a different mechanism for sending an e-mail than the regualr
"send a single document as an e-mail" function
b. that mechanism relies on a MAPI interface that any e-mail client program
/could/ have, but only the full Outlook actually has. No other e-mail client
seems to be able to do it. That's probably to do with the fact that MAPI is
very much a Microsoft Windows standard that many e-mail clients do not
support at all.

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

Dweezil38 said:
Hi Peter,

Thanks for the response.

I did use your solution of creating a separate table for the merge data in
Access. This does work a little better. But as for the HTML format
problem,
why does an individual email letter sent from Word 2000 send it out in
HTML
format to Outlook Express??

thanks Dweezil

Peter Jamieson said:
In addition to Doug's comments about HTML, FWIW Word 2000 cannot merge to
e-mail using HTML format and no version of Word can merge to e-mail using
HTML format via any version of Outlook Express.

On the issue of getting the data, if the query is the one you describe
that
references your Form's category field, then I do not think you will be
able
to get the data that is currently selected in the Form (you might be able
to
get it via DDE, but I don't know how you guarantee that it is the
currently
selected data. As for ODBC, the thing is that Access really consists of
two
parts: the thing you can see, i.e. (1) a program that lets you design and
run all those forms and reports, and (2) a data engine called Jet that
stores and supplies all the data. Queries that reference things like
Forms![MyDataEntryForm]![CustomerCategory] make sense to (1) (at least
when
the relevant form is open). DDE gets its data via (1). However, ODBC only
looks at (2) and this sort of query is essentially meaningless as far as
it
is concerned.

So what can you do to get the data you need? Well, what you probably need
is
a button on the form that lets the user export the data they are
currently
looking at, either to a table in Access (e.g. you clear the table, then
re-populate it), or to an external file that Word can open. I can't tell
you
exactly how to do that, but if you export to a table within Access you
need
to be sure that only one person is doing this at a time.
--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

Dweezil38 said:
I always thought this was easy but evidently not!

Here's what I'm trying to do:

I have an Access 2000 Database with a query that runs and gets Customer
records based on a record showing on a Data Entry Form, eg: Get all
records
where Customer Category = Forms![MyDataEntryForm]![CustomerCategory]

Now I want to create a Word 2000 Form Letter that will merge the data
from
the query results and email it out to each individual that has an Email
address. (The Access Query only selects Customers that have a valid
email
address)

The Email needs to be sent in HTML Format.

I'm using Outlook Express 2000!

Problems: I understand that my Access Database can not have a unique
Application Title. I also know that when selecting the Data Source for
the
Word Form Letter that I should use "MS Access Database via ODBC
(*.mdb)".
This should set up the Word document to not open another copy of the
Database
but instead use the copy that is currently open. Is this right?? Should
I
use
the "MS Access Database via DDE(*.mdb: *mde)"??? I have found that I
get
an
error when I select the "Database via ODBC" and choose the query (View)
that
I want to use. The error says "Word unable to open data Source"?

If I use "MS Access Database via DDE(*.mdb: *mde)" it will link and
merge
the data but when I go to the Merge Dialog box in Word, it does not
indicate
that I can specify HTML Format for the email. When I do click on the
Merge
button to initiate the merge and send each email letter, I get a
message
for
each letter to be sent saying "A program is attempting to send the
following
email message on your behalf, with button to Send and another to Do not
Send.
How can I get around this message poping up for each email letter?

Lastly, once I get to the point of having the email to go the Outbox in
Outlook Express it is not in an HTML Format but instead in plain
text????

Wordy question I know but.... how to I get an Access Query and Word to
do
an
email mail merge and send out each letter in HTML Format without either
program blowing up and having the user click on some dialog box message
for
each letter????

Thanks in advanced. Dweezil
 
L

Lynn Osborne

Did you find the solution for bypassing or automatically answering the
warning message that offers the Send or Don't Send options? I downloaded
express click and it does not answer automatically.

Lynn Osborne
***********
 
D

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

AFAIK, Express Click Yes only works with Outlook, not Outlook Express.

--
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
 

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