Mail Merge to Email with Mail Format, Attachment, being a PDF file

Question

I have been able to successfully send a merged formatted letter as an e-mail attachment to individuals on an e-mail list. But I would like to try this a different way since all my recipients will likely prefer a PDF file rather than a Word file.

1. How can I create a merge that attaches a PDF version of the source document?
2. How can I include an e-mail message in the sent e-mail message with the attachment. In my testing, when the e-mail goes out, the message is blank. The only way the recipients will have a clue as to what this is would be by reading the subject line and the file name of the attachment.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

You can do that with the MergeTools – 20140218.dotm Add-in that I created that you can download from the following page of my One Drive:

http://bit.ly/1hduSCB

The file needs to be saved in the Word Startup folder.  In Windows XP the default location for that folder is

C:\Documents and Settings[User Name]\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP

In Windows Vista and Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 it is

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

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

One thing to note is that the field names in the data source must contain only alphanumeric characters (No @,#,$,%,&,(,), etc) and the field names must not start with a numeric character (0-9).

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.

Answer 2

Thank you so much for this, Doug. I'll give it a try. I'm working with someone who is not good with Excel. Is it possible to use a Word table rather than an Excel spreadsheet for the data source? The Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM Addin works well also, but of course you need Acrobat installed.

So I assume the file with the steps I'm trying to follow is Merging With Attachments? If so, I'm lost on the steps.

1. I have created a main document Word file that is linked to an Excel spreadsheet as the Data Source. I open the main document in Word.
2. Now I assume I try to follow your steps. You refer to a "Log" file. Are you saying that I need to create a column in the Excel file with the column heading Log? On the second page you say ". . . using the Log field as the field that contains the filename which is to be used for each letter created by the merge . . ." Are you saying I choose different names for each entry under Log in the Excel spreadsheet so each merged document will have a unique name?
3. In the step at the bottom of page 1 when you say to click Browse for attachments to be included with all messages, I'm lost as to what file I'm trying to browse too? Maybe once I know that, I can continue following directions on the handout.

Answer 3

Doug's add-in, like my own Many to One add-in, is hard coded to use Excel as a data source. These are not merge processes but assembled completely in VBA. It should be a simple matter to copy a Word table to Excel. Much more simple than re-writing complex add-ins to use alternative data sources.

Doug's Browse for attachments option presumably means that you can optionally select attachment files to be attached to all messages. This is also a feature of my add-in. This would be attachment(s) additional to the attached merge document. e.g. an unmerged prospectus document or terms of business etc.

Many to One also features the option to include a personalised e-mail message based on the same data source, or a simple text message.

Answer 4

Thanks, Graham. We're getting warmer. So If all I want to do is send merged PDF files as attachments to an e-mail that includes an e-mail message and don't want additional attachments, I don't follow these steps in Merging With Attachments? If so, what steps do I follow?

Answer 5

WOW--just looked at your pages, Graham. What an incredible amount of work you did--you are very dedicated. That said, this is way too much for me to comprehend, so I think I'll stick with the Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM Addin. Thank you for your time and best of luck with your project. One day, maybe Microsoft will build in this ability so dedicated persons like you and Doug won't have to work so hard to get this feature going. Thanks again.