Mail Merge uses WLM instead of Outlook

[Lookout]

I'm trying to set up a Mail Merge with Word and Outlook. I have a 4-row Excel spreadsheet I'm using as a test. The columns are FIRST, LAST, and EMAIL. I go through the Wizard (in Word) and everything previews as expected. I am using "plain text" as the mail format.

Then I click OK in step 6 to send the emails and I immediately get a very brief window with something like "Windows Live Mail 2012 Starting". Followed by a message "No matches found for <email address>", where <email address> is one of the email addresses from my spreadsheet. I click OK or cancel and the next email address is used with the same "No matches.." message. The "Windows Live ..." is displayed only on the first row of the spreadsheet. The "No matches ..." message is displayed for each row.

I do not use Windows Live Mail (WLM). Instead I use Outlook.

Outlook is my default email program.

My test worked a couple of times today, but no longer works.

Any suggestions? Why is WLM getting involved? Many thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[Lookout]

I should have added in the original posting that the real issue is that none of the emails generated by MS WORD ever get sent to the intended recipient.