Creating a Mail Merge to Email Using Outlook 2000

This document describes the process for sending form letter emails with a personal touch, as in a mail merge.  There are a number of ways to accomplish such a feat, of which some are better than others.  This method, using Outlook 2000, is not only easy but very versatile.

Activists have been doing mail merges with their membership databases since the computer first hit their desks.  As the Internet has become more and more a part of their communication, we've begun to call them "Online Activists", which has created some other opportunities in membership communication.  With the increasing use of email, we now have an inexpensive, quick and easy way to distribute messages to large groups of people.  To give each message a personal touch, in a personal manner, we can now perform a mail merge to directly email with ease.

Technically, a mail merge to email can be initiated through many applications, the most basic being Word and Outlook (or a database like Access or FileMaker.)  We recommend beginning in Outlook, because defining the data the source of your data (address book contacts) in Word is a little clunky.

Before beginning, it is a good idea to make sure that Outlook is not setup to send messages automatically.  This will allow you to double-check your mail merge output before sending it out.  Incidentally, it is OK to continue to receive mail every X minutes, as this function does not send mail.

1. From the Tools menu, click Options.

2. Click on the Mail Delivery  tab.

3. Uncheck Send messages immediately when connected.

The first real step is to define to whom you want the message to go.  To view your address book contacts in Outlook, start in the Contacts folder.  Use the control key (hold it down as you click) to choose each address that you�d like to include in the mail merge.  (Distribution lists cannot be merged, but you can apply labels like Categories to a record, which will enable you to choose many contacts simultaneously.)  Once each of your intended targets is highlighted, you are ready to choose your mail merge options.

1. Click on the Contacts icon from the folder list.

2. Select the records to include in the mail merge.

3. From the Tools menu, choose Mail Merge. 

Figure 1

There are five topic areas in the Mail Merge Contacts box as shown in Figure 1.  The first, labeled Contacts, allows you to choose which set of contacts to merge�all those in the current view or just the ones you selected.¹   The next topic area, Fields to merge, defines which fields to make available in the merging document.  There really isn't any harm in making all of the fields available in the merge, so you might as well leave the default.  In the Document file section, you have the option of using an existing document like a past merge document template, or you can create a new one.  Another useful option is to create a permanent file.  This allows you to document the people that received this communication (in addition to the sent mail records) in an easily recoverable file.  And finally the Merge options section identifies exactly what kind of mail merge you want to do.  You can create form letters, mailing labels, envelopes or catalogues, which can be merge to a new document, directly to a printer or to an email message.

1. Choose Only Selected Contact.

2. Leave the default All contact fields.

3. Select New document.

4. Leave the Permanent file  box unchecked.

5. Choose document type-form letters, Merge to-E-mail and enter a subject in the resulting text box.

6. Click OK  to initiate Word and create the message.

Notice the mail merge specific additions to the Word toolbar.  As the label implies, this is how you add fields like first name or address.  Anything that is typed or fields that are added in this document will be merged into an email sent to each individual that you originally selected.  You should complete the document as if it were an email message.  When it is ready to send, click on the Merge button on the mail merge toolbar.  The defaults should all be correct, but make sure it is set to merge all records to Electronic mail.  (Choose all because Word only knows about the records that you told it about�the ones you highlighted.)  By clicking the setup button, you can confirm the field that contains the address (email) and edit the subject line.  Once these defaults have been verified to be correct click Merge to generate the messages in your Outbox.   

1. Click  the Merge button.

2. Check the defaults.

3. Click Merge  to generate the email messages.

To double-check the messages before sending go back to Outlook and find the emails in the outbox.  You should find a message for every one of your chosen contacts.  Open one of them to verify that it looks as intended.  Assuming that you are happy and ready to send, simply click Send/Receive to beam the mail merge messages to each individual. 

Voila!  Personalized mass electronic communication.

06/29/01

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