mail merge not working with office 2013

You could use the merge to email message destination in the Merge with Attachments utility on my Merge Tools Add-in (you do not need to have attachments) to do it.

You can download the MergeTools – 20150422.dotm Add-in that I created from the following page of my One Drive:

http://bit.ly/1hduSCB

Do NOT open the MergeTools – 20150422.dotm file.(There are no user serviceable parts inside and it should NOT be used as the basis for creating your mail merge main document.) 

The MergeTools – 20150422.dotm file needs to be saved in the Word Startup folder.  In Windows Vista and Windows 7, 8 or 8.1, and 10, the default location for that folder is

C:\Users[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP

If you do not see the AppData folder: -

In Windows 7, - In Windows Explorer, click on the Organize drop down and then on Folder and search options and in the Folder Options dialog, go to the View tab and select the item "Show hidden files, folders, and drives".  While there, it is a good idea to uncheck the box for "Hide extensions for known file types".

In Windows 8,  8.1 or 10, in the File Explorer, click on Options on the View tab of the ribbon and then on the View tab in the dialog that appears and select the item "Show hidden files, folders, and drives".  While there, it is a good idea to uncheck the box for "Hide extensions for known file types".

 When that has been done and Word is started\re-started, the tab shown below will be added to the Ribbon:

The requirements for using the system are:

1. The mail merge main document must be of the Letters type, though that does not mean that the output cannot be sent as an e-mail message.
2. For the Many To One, Merge with Attachments and Merge to Individual Docs utilities, the data source may be either a table or query in an Access database, or in the form of an Excel worksheet and that worksheet must be the first sheet in the Excel workbook. If the data is on some other sheet, you can easily move that sheet so that it is the first sheet in the workbook by clicking on the sheet tab and dragging it to the left.  For the Chart Merge utility, download the Mail Merging with Charts document that is also on that page of my OneDrive for additional requirements of the data source for use with that utility
3. For a data source in the form of an Excel worksheet, the field names must be in the first row of the worksheet and there must be a field name in all of the cells in that row that are within the range of columns that contain the data.
4. For both types of data source, the field names must contain only alphanumeric characters (No @,#,$,%,&,(,), etc) and the field names must not start with a numeric character (0-9). The number of characters in the field names, including spaces, must not be more than 40.
5. For a data source in the form of an Excel worksheet, the data must start in the second row of the worksheet and there should be no empty rows within the range of data that is to be processed.
6. If there are multiple addressees in either the To or CC fields of the data source, the email addresses need to be separated by a semi-colon.

NOTE: The MergeTools applications cannot handle “Compound” MergeFields such as the «AddressBlock» or «GreetingLine».  Instead of using those fields, you will need to insert the individual merge fields.

You may also want to download:

1. the Merging with Attachments document that is also on that page which explains how the system is used.  It is not actually necessary to have separate attachments as the facility can be used to send just the documents created by the merge itself as attachments, either as the body of the message itself or in the form of Word files or .pdf files.
2. the Mail Merging with Charts document that is also on that page.  That document explains how you must set up the Excel Data Source and the Mail Merge Main document to be able to execute a merge with a Chart that is unique to each record in the data source.
3. the Using the Many to One Facility document that describes how to use that facility.

I'm with you - I'm wading through this in a hurry, having run mail merge on my old computer no problem. I want support - not people who think they are clever than everyone else

Oh and I can email plain text - putting back to HTML - computer says no - well actually computer does nothing

I hope that made you feel better. And I hope you have a nice weekend too.

Given that most users of Office 2013 have no trouble with merging to email when they need to, why do you suppose it's a 'Microsoft Office product issue' and not a fault with your computer itself? If you're so sure of yourself, go tell Microsoft precisely what the 'Microsoft Office product issue' is at http://word.uservoice.com/. I'm sure they'd like to know.

You have to be the least helpful person I have EVER read on the internet when it comes to an issue which is clearly a Microsoft Office product issue.

I feel sorry for those that have interacted with you, completely rude and unhelpful. You seem to know nothing about this topic so I would advise those who have read this users "advice" to completely ignore.

Start by eliminating Outlook from the situation by attempting to execute the merge to a new document by selecting the Edit Individual Documents option in the Finish & Merge section of the Mailings tab of the ribbon.

If both machines can do that, then the issue must be in the configuration of Outlook on the Windows 10 machine.  Try one of the other format options for the email messages.