E-mail Mail Merge with MS Word and Outlook-Part I

If you currently have Microsoft Office 97 (including Word and Excel) and you use Outlook (I use Outlook 98), you already have a built-in E-Mail Mail Merge ("EM³") function. EM³ allows you to create a form letter customized as to each recipient, and then E-mail that "letter." Mail merge differs from E-mail distribution lists or "groups" in that each letter can be customized to the individual recipient and your entire mailing list is not displayed in the header of each outgoing E-mail message.

To use your existing Contacts in Outlook (or a subfolder of Contacts) for E-mailing in Microsoft Word, you must first export them to an Excel file to use as a "Data Source." Follow these steps to create a Data Source from your Contacts in Outlook:

In Outlook, under Personal File Folders click on the Contacts folder.

If you wish to Mail Merge your entire Contacts list, go to step #9 below. Otherwise, with Contacts still highlighted, click on File on the menubar, then New and then Folder.

When the "Create New Folder" window opens, under "Name" enter the name of the subfolder you wish to create such as prospective buyers, your contacts in a subdivision, settlement service providers for a specific transaction or whatever. For example purposes throughout this article (Parts I & II), I'm creating a subfolder labeled "Buyer Prospects"

The "Folder Contains" entry field in the Create New Folder window should read "Contact Items"

The "Select where to place folder" entry field should have the "Contacts" directory/folder highlighted. Click on OK.

"Buyer Prospects" should now be a sub-folder under "Contacts"

Beginning with the first contact under the main Contacts folder that you wish to add to Buyer Prospects (or whatever filename you have chosen), click on it to highlight. Then click "Edit" on the menubar, then "Copy to folder." "Buyer Prospects" should still be highlighted, so click OK. (If the Buyer Prospects subfolder is not still highlighted, click on it once, then click OK). SHORTCUT: Instead of using your mouse, type CTRL-E and while still holding the CTRL key down, then type "Y" (without the quotes) then hit "Enter" (also without the quotes). That's "E" for Edit, "Y" for Copy and Enter for "OK."

Repeat this process until all the Contacts you wish to add to Buyer Prospects are copied to the Buyer Prospects subfolder.

When you are ready to do a mail merge using these Contacts, click on the newly created Buyer Prospects subfolder. Then click on File on the menubar, then Import/Export. When the Import and Export Window opens, click on Export.

The Input & Export Wizard window opens, and asks you to "Choose an action to perform:"

Select "Export to a file" then click "Next"

The wizard then asks, "Create a file of type:", select "Microsoft Excel", then click "Next"

The Wizard asks, "Select a folder to export from:" The subfolder "Buyer Prospects" under "Contacts" should already be highlighted, but if not just click once on it.

The Wizard then asks, "Save exported file as:" It doesn't really matter where you save your mail merge files (Main Document and Data Source) as long as you know the location. I find it easiest to create a new directory on the C:\ drive containing all data files (those files I create) and I call it "Data Central" (In Windows Explorer make sure the C:\ is highlighted. Click on File, then New and then Folder and then type "Data Central" in the entry box). Then, under Data Central I create subfolders such as Articles, Mail Merge, Correspondence, etc. etc. I would save the exported Excel file as, "C:\Data Central\Word Mail Merge\Buyer Prospects"

Click on "Next"

The next screen states "Export to a file: The following actions will be performed." The display area beneath shows a checkbox (containing a checkmark) stating 'Export "Contacts" from the "Buyer Prospects" folder,' which is correct. Click on "Finish"