mail merge not working with office 2013

Anonymous
2013-03-08T16:24:00+00:00

Trying to do a mail merge with office 2013.  I've done this for years with other versions of office (2003, 2007, 2010) but it's not working with 2013 for some reason.  I'm following all the steps, but the emails aren't getting sent.  Is there some way that the profile or something is set up wrong so that word isn't sending this properly? I've also tried to send via outlook, but in outlook I can't choose an excel spreadsheet for the list of contacts. 

What is wrong with this?  someone plesae help me!  My outlook profiles are all messed up becasue i use icloud to sync the calendar and contacts, but i use pop/stmp (whatever that means) for my email....

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-11-07T15:37:33+00:00

    Outlook 2013:  I was able to execute an email merge and send messages using Plain Text as the format.  But I was not able to execute it afterward in HTML format.  Plus, Outlook required me to Allow every single individual email before it would send it.  I only had about a dozen names in my list, so while irritating, this was not onerous, but it will be when I have to send about 100 emails next month.

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  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2016-10-14T22:20:17+00:00

    What type of merge are you trying to perform.  Unless it is a Many to One situation, where you have multiple records with some of them having common data in a particular field and you want all of those records to be used in the output (e.g. with an invoice), you should not be using the Many to One utility.

    If you send me a copy of the mail merge main document and the data source, referencing this thread in the covering email message, I will check them out and let you know what you need to do to get it to work properly.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-10-14T20:09:59+00:00

    Merge Tools did not work for me or else I didn't know how to use it.  I have an excel sheet that has one sheet, first row titles.  The option "many to one" had an error - calculation error?  Don't remember.  But I deleted it because it also prevented Word from remembering that I had associated a data source from this computer.

    Here's what's happening on my end, and maybe someone can make a recommendation that doesn't involve altering my computer.

    I formerly was able to do merge documents until I edited my options to NOT send right away.  Which I needed because I have to edit the emails individually before they go out.  NOW email mail merge doesn't work unless I send as plain text, which I can't.   HELP!

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  4. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2016-10-03T22:36:59+00:00

    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.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-10-03T22:23:54+00:00

    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

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