My data source is a spreadsheet named range. i have created a link from my word document using usng Select Recipients\Use an existing list... I have edited the list by removing all addresses except my own (I don't want 120 people getting junk mail until I get this working properly). I've tested this scenario in Outlook to be sure it copes with emailing oneself. Despite that the Finish and Merge command produces the outcome I described in my initial post. The source email is stored as text. I've tried converting the source data to Hyperlik but that does not help.