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  #1  
Old 01-16-2012, 06:20 AM
MartinD_UK MartinD_UK is offline Merge to e-mail: two problems Windows XP Merge to e-mail: two problems Office 2007
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Default Merge to e-mail: two problems

I’m trying to do a mail merge to e-mail, and I’m encountering two problems:



1. I want to send the merged Word document as an attachment (as opposed to plain text or HTML as the body of the e-mail), but I want to include an explanatory message in the body of the e-mail in addition to the attachment (I think it is inadequate to send mails with just a subject line and attachment). Ideally, I would also like to be able to include formatting in the message in the body of the e-mail – and to personalise it by including a contact name from the data source.

I can’t find any way of doing this in the available options in Word. The ‘Merge to E-mail’ dialogue allows me to type in a subject line and to select ‘Attachment’ as mail format, but doesn’t give any additional options regarding the message in the body of the e-mail.

2. When I run the merge, I get a warning from Outlook, saying, “A program is trying to send an e-mail message on your behalf…” with options to allow or deny. Even if I click ‘Allow’ and set it to allow this for ten minutes (the maximum available option), the warning comes up for every single individual mail. I’m mailing to a list of 4,000 recipients, I also have other work to do, and I don’t want RSI. How do I set it to allow Word to send the whole mailing?

I would be grateful for answers to either or both of these points.
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  #2  
Old 01-16-2012, 02:27 PM
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Hi Martin,

See:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MailMerge/...ttachments.htm
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  #3  
Old 01-19-2012, 06:48 AM
MartinD_UK MartinD_UK is offline Merge to e-mail: two problems Windows XP Merge to e-mail: two problems Office 2007
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Hi Paul

Thanks for your reply. The information to which you linked solved my problem #2 - I downloaded the recommended utility for automatically clicking 'yes' on the Outlook warnings.

However, it didn't solve my problem #1. I followed the instructions to the letter, and successfully ran the macro which e-mailed each address in the data source with the required merged message in the body of the e-mail, and added the Word document as an attachment.

The problem is, it didn't merge the attached Word document - it just sent the raw mail merge document with all the field codes etc in it.

To re-cap, what I want to do is: send a mail merge to e-mail, with a merged message in the body of the e-mail (or, failing that, any message at all in the body of the e-mail) *and* a *merged* Word document as an attachment. I'm surprised to find this is quite such an endeavour - I would have thought this was the kind of thing people would want to do all the time!

As an alternative, the method described in the information to which you linked would work, if it were possible to merge the Word document in advance to individually-named separate files. If I could name them using a field in the data source, I could then add the .doc (or .docx) extension to the contents of that field and add the field to the directory file for the e-mail merge, so the merged document relevant to each recipient would get attached to their mail. However, I don't know of a way to merge a Word document to separate files: when you merge to letters, you get one long document. Is there a way?

I would be grateful for any enlightenment you, or anyone else, can offer.

Thanks again for your reply, and best wishes,

Martin
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  #4  
Old 01-19-2012, 03:41 PM
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Hi Martin,

I suspect that the problem may be that you're switching active documents before running the macro. The mailmerge output document is the one that should be active.
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Old 01-20-2012, 04:30 AM
MartinD_UK MartinD_UK is offline Merge to e-mail: two problems Windows XP Merge to e-mail: two problems Office 2007
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If I run this macro with my mail merge output document as the active document, it will put the merged text into the body of the email, and not attach it as I require.

To re-cap again, what I want to do is: send a mail merge to e-mail, with

(i) a merged message in the body of the e-mail (or, failing that, any message at all in the body of the e-mail)

**AND**

(ii) a *merged* Word document **as an attachment**.

I'm struggling to think of how I can make myself clearer, and I'm beginning to suspect that actually it's not possible to do what I want to do in Word. Which I find surprising.

Thanks,

Martin
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  #6  
Old 01-21-2012, 11:08 PM
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Hi Martin,

The process outlined at http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MailMerge/...ttachments.htm does indeed produce emails with attachments if implemented correctly. If that's not what you're getting, all I can conclude (despite your assurances that you've followed to procedures 'to the letter') is that your implementation hasn't been correct.
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Old 01-23-2012, 05:43 AM
MartinD_UK MartinD_UK is offline Merge to e-mail: two problems Windows XP Merge to e-mail: two problems Office 2007
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Hi Paul

Yes, the process does indeed produce e-mails with attachments - as I stated in my second post, above.

What it does not do is produce emails with *merged* attachments.

If I execute to a new document a mail merge, using as the merge document the document I want to attach, and then run the macro (using the directory file I've created as described under 'Setup' in the information to which you linked); it uses the text of the document as the text of the body of the email - which is not what I want. (As described in my third post, above.)

If, in the alternative, I execute to a new document a mail merge, using as a merge document the text I want to put in the body of the email, and then run the macro (again, using the directory file I've created as described under 'Setup'); it does exactly what I want in the body of the email, and it attaches the document I want to attach - but it does not merge that document: it attaches it as a raw mail merge document with all the field codes etc in it. This is also not what I want. (As described in my second post, above.)

What I actually want, as I stated in my first, second and third posts above, and which I might as well repeat now, is to send a *merged* Word document *as an attachment* to multiple e-mail addresses, *and, in addition to the **merged** attachment,* to put some text in the body of the e-mail.

Please can I ask that you read my post - carefully - before posting another reply.

If you humour me and make a working assumption (just for a few minutes) that I'm not stupid, then when you read what I've written you may find that you've actually slightly missed the exact point of what I'm asking.

If it would help, is there a facility on this forum for uploading example files, to illustrate what I mean?

Thank you,

Martin
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  #8  
Old 01-26-2012, 02:24 PM
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Hi Martin,

The code works with two documents:
1. A 'Source' standard mailmerge output document that contains whatever is to go into the body of each email.
2. A 'Maillist' Catalog/Directory mailmerge output document that contains a table with the email addresses in the first column and the paths to the attachments in the second & subsequent columns.

These two mailmerge output documents need to have their records in the same order, so that the Sections in the 'Source' document match the table rows in the 'Maillist' document.

The 'Source' document should be the ActiveDocument before the macro is run. The 'Maillist' document should not be open when the macro is started - it is opened by you once the macro starts.

If you want to upload some files, you can do so quite easily. Simply click on the Advanced tab, then the paperclip symbol. Then browse to the relevant folder and select the files.
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  #9  
Old 01-27-2012, 04:41 AM
MartinD_UK MartinD_UK is offline Merge to e-mail: two problems Windows XP Merge to e-mail: two problems Office 2007
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Hi Paul

Thank you for the fuller explanation.

However, I’ve understood all that already, and that’s what I was doing. I had a mail merge output document, open as you describe in your point (1), containing the text that needs to go into the body of each mail; and I had a ready-merged directory document consisting of a two-column table with e-mail address in the first column and the path to the attachment in the second column, as you describe in your point (2). This latter was not open – as required. The records in the two documents were sorted in the same order, since they were created using the same original data source. This was the exact scenario that yielded the results I described in my second post, above.

The problem is that I want *the attachment itself* – to which, for each record, the path in the second column of the directory document points – to be a merged Word document, in which the content is different for each recipient, populated using fields in the original data source. This is the bit that I can’t achieve using the process described, because when you merge to letters in Word you get one long document and not separate files for each recipient. If the path in the second column of the directory document points to an unmerged Word document, the process doesn’t merge it – it just attaches it as it is.

Do you know of a solution that achieves what I describe?

Thanks,

Martin
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Old 01-27-2012, 09:50 PM
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Hi Martin,
Quote:
The problem is that I want *the attachment itself* – to which, for each record, the path in the second column of the directory document points – to be a merged Word document
For that, your attachment documents need to be generated via an ordinary mailmerge. That mailmerge's output document will then need to be split into separate files per recipient and the resulting filenames referenced in your 'Maillist' Catalog/Directory mailmerge output document's second column.

For code to generate the individual attachment merge letters, see: http://www.gmayor.com/individual_merge_letters.htm. That page includes material for a fully-fledged addin at the top but, if you don't want to go that far, there is code further down the page that should do what you want.
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  #11  
Old 01-30-2012, 05:23 AM
MartinD_UK MartinD_UK is offline Merge to e-mail: two problems Windows XP Merge to e-mail: two problems Office 2007
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Aha! So the solution is the thing I asked about in my second post, above (“As an alternative...”).

I’ve downloaded the add-in, and got it to work – once I’d worked out that you have to save the master mail merge document as a template in order to get all the formatting right in the split output documents. (I tried using a couple of the macros lower down the page, before resorting to downloading the add-in, but got errors reported when I ran them – probably something to do with compatibility with the version of Word I'm using.)

Thank you – I now have a working solution.

I still find it a little strange that you have to use an add-in, and then a separate macro, to achieve the end of putting text in the body of the e-mail when you send a merged Word document as an attachment. The standard options in Word, in the ‘Merge to E-mail’ dialogue when you select ‘Attachment’ under ‘Mail format’, really should include at least the ability to add some text (even if only unmerged text, the same for every recipient) into the body of the e-mail, and not just the subject line. I can’t imagine anyone, anywhere, ever, really wants to send e-mails with attachments but no text in the body.

However, the method (or rather, combination of methods) to which you’ve directed my attention will give greater flexibility than I was looking for, and will be useful in the future.

Cheers,

Martin
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Old 01-30-2012, 02:30 PM
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Hi Martin,

I frequesntly see people expressing disappointment, and sometimes even anger, that Word doesn't provide a built-in means to do something that few people seem to have a need for.

I'm sure Word's feature list is mostly driven by demand (and some of the perceived need may be only that - perceived), plus features that MS designers think would be 'neat', even if there's little use for them (eg marching-ants text). I think the fact no-one's even developed an add-in to automate the process you're trying to achieve is an indication of how little demand there is for it.
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Old 06-19-2012, 08:34 AM
goodidea goodidea is offline Merge to e-mail: two problems Windows 7 32bit Merge to e-mail: two problems Office 2010 32bit
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Default Ignoring Demand?

Hi Paul,

I've wrestled with this same issue a few dozen times, most recently this morning. The fact that Word provides dialogue boxes to perform an e-mail merge, but then gets all tripped up by Outlook dialogue boxes requiring manual clicks to send each e-mail has always been, and continues to be disappointing. I keep trying again hoping MS has fixed the issue, but find no relief.

For now, I just resign myself to sitting in front of the computer clicking 'allow' a few dozen (or hundred) times, because in the end it's still faster than manually sending every single e-mail.

Mail merge is not that exotic of a feature. It was clearly intended to work in Office by virtue of the dialogues that are there. However the anti-malware protections that have been added have resulted in breaking the intended functionality of the application. How disappointing that nobody at Microsoft has gone to bat to fix this bug, especially after it's been called out in at least a dozen forums I found by different users in a ten-minute search--dating back more than 5 years.

I've found the add-in work-arounds, but like most users, I don't want to get mired in VBA code to perform a function that MS has already written the code to perform.

Those who need mail merge as core functionality have found work-arounds ... custom VBA code or alternate products. It's users like me who only need this occasionally, and are too busy to dig up a work-around, that waste time staring at our screens, clicking "Allow" every 10 seconds. By the time we're done with that, we have too many other things to do to call Microsoft and complain about their laziness for not fixing this stupid bug.

Most people try the mail merge, discover it's broken, and give up. Just because you don't hear from them doesn't mean there isn't demand. We're not talking about a marching-ants text feature, we're talking about e-mail merge. It's useful. Business applications for it abound. It's broken.

Can you please help us get some traction so someone at Microsoft will recognize and fix this annoying, disappointing bug?

Thanks,
Joe

Quote:
Originally Posted by macropod View Post
Hi Martin,

I frequesntly see people expressing disappointment, and sometimes even anger, that Word doesn't provide a built-in means to do something that few people seem to have a need for.

I'm sure Word's feature list is mostly driven by demand (and some of the perceived need may be only that - perceived), plus features that MS designers think would be 'neat', even if there's little use for them (eg marching-ants text). I think the fact no-one's even developed an add-in to automate the process you're trying to achieve is an indication of how little demand there is for it.
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Old 06-19-2012, 05:13 PM
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Hi Joe,

You could download the utility referred to in the link in my first post to obviate the warning. An no, I don't expect MS to "recognize and fix this annoying, disappointing bug" as it is not a bug but a security feature designed to prevent malware from using your PC as a spam generator.
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Old 06-19-2012, 11:10 PM
goodidea goodidea is offline Merge to e-mail: two problems Windows 7 32bit Merge to e-mail: two problems Office 2010 32bit
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Default Still a bug

It's a feature that applies itself in the wrong situations = a bug.

I recognize Microsoft felt it necessary to implement a security shield to protect against malware, but with a little more effort it should be able to distinguish between a user-initiated e-mail merge and any other auto e-mail attempt. It may require a little bit more thinking to do so without creating an exploitable hole in the security shield. At least an open-minded programmer could figure out a "Microsoft" solution. If not, maybe they could add an option on the pop-up box to bypass the warnings for a time period or something.

I believe you are correct, though, MS is unlikely to fix it. Even if they got over themselves and acknowledged their 'feature' caused a bug that impaired another feature, they have bigger fish to fry, and seem to be satisfied making users rely on 3rd-party developers to work around the broken features they don't think people use. Really, the existence of the 3rd-party workaround tool, and its popularity should be evidence that their product doesn't measure up. Such a world-class software company should be able to spare one developer enough time to address a simple issue like this, so I'm still disappointed. But I've wasted enough of your time. I'll be content with the complaints I've posted here, hoping they might make some difference at some point, and go on my way. Thanks for pointing out the 3rd-party tool again.

-Joe

Quote:
Originally Posted by macropod View Post
Hi Joe,

You could download the utility referred to in the link in my first post to obviate the warning. An no, I don't expect MS to "recognize and fix this annoying, disappointing bug" as it is not a bug but a security feature designed to prevent malware from using your PC as a spam generator.
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