HTML mail merge not working

Question

Hi,

I am having the exact same issue as described in this support question - "https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/merge-to-email-not-working-with-html-format/4a7f6ce2-eda0-4ef1-95a8-2751d63979bd"

When I click 'send as plain text' or 'send as attachment', a window appears from outlook, saying that another app is trying to send emails. However when I click to send as 'HTML', it flicks through my various mail merge versions, as if its sending, but nothing actually sends.

I would really appreciate getting this fixed.

Thanks

Answer 1

Dear Intern7,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. I am happy to help you.

Based on my experience and feedback from other users, this phenomenon may be related to the version of Outlook.

You can first try to install the classic version of Outlook app can send via mail merge:

You can't open classic Outlook on a new Windows PC - Microsoft Support

If you are still experiencing the same problem after using this version, I would like to further confirm the following information so that I can continue to investigate the issue:

• The version information of Word you are using (File - Account - version information)

I look forward to your reply. Thanks for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Tin | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 2

Thank you Tin Zhang,

I was using the 'old' outlook, so I have switched to the new version. It hasn't worked so far, but it does seem to be doing something different. I will revert once I sort this separate issue.

For your information, the account/licence is that which is associated with this account I am replying from - I don't believe there is any issue with the licence. The version is '2412 (Build 18324.20194 Click-to-run) Current Channel'

I need to use the HTML mail merge for this task (which will be about 1,500 emails to different people). After that, in a few weeks, I will need to use the 'Adobe' merge to PDF function. What I have found out though, is that this also does not work! It simply says that the 'Adobe PDF maker was not able to merge the document.' From reading these forums, it also appears to be an issue frequently encountered. The two above functions are really the only two that are useful for these tasks. Its really rotten luck that these are the two functions that do not work!

Help with that second issue would also be appreciated.

THanks

Answer 3

New Outlook is simply a rebadged version of Windows Mail and, like that application, is not MAPI-compliant, so you cannot use it to send mail from any other application, including mail merges from Word.

Answer 4

Use my Merge Tools Add-in that is contained in the MERGE TOOLS ADD-IN.zip file that you can download from: 

https://mergetoolsaddin.com/

Extract the files from the archive and read the:

“READ ME – Setting up and using the Merge Tools Add-in.pdf

to see how to install and use the various tools.

Using those tools, it is possible to perform the following types of merge that cannot be done with Mail Merge “out-of-the-box”:

• Merge to e-mail messages either with or without attachments, with the documents created by the merge being sent as either Word or PDF attachments or as the body of the e-mail message .  The email messages can, if necessary, also be sent to CC and BCC addresses and the subject of the message can include data from a field in the data source.
• Merge to individual documents in either Word or PDF format with the filenames being supplied by the data in one of the fields in the data source
• Many to One type merges, which can be used for creating documents such as invoices where there are multiple records in the data source that have common data in one of the fields
• Merging to a document that will include a chart that is unique to each record in the data source
• Merging a document with Content Controls
• Merging a document that contains Legacy FormFields
• Duplex Merges
• Merging to a printer that will collate and staple the output created from each record in the data source.

The requirements for using the system are:

• 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 where relevant.
• 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. For the Chart Merge utility, see the Mail Merging with Charts document that is included in the Merge Tools Add-in Zip file for additional requirements for the data source for use with that utility
• 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.
• 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.

The MergeTools Add-in will NOT work with the “New Outlook”, which is just a re-badged version of Windows Mail and like its predecessor, it does not support automation and hence will not send the messages created by the MergeTools Add-in.

Be aware, that any messages that you had tried to send with the “New Outlook” will have been placed in the Outbox of the original Outlook and they will be sent as soon as you revert to that version of Outlook.   If you do not want that to happen, you should put Outlook Off-line, or disconnect your computer from the Internet.

For a demonstration of the use of the facility, prepared by a Microsoft employee, see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj_s3cdfVDY

Answer 5

Update:

You might all find this surprising, but I got it to work.

When using the 'old' outlook, it did absolutely nothing.

After that, I tried opening the new outlook (with the old closed) and sending the emails with both word and new outlook open. It gave me a pop up warning saying 'We detected a problem launching the new Outlook. Please try again later,' and prompting me to click 'ok.' Then I click ok (the only option). If you stay in the new outlook, nothing will happen.

IF, however, you then click back to the old outlook, at the bottom of the screen it will say that it is updating, and soon after will say that it is sending X out of Y messages, with a completion bar. The messages then send perfectly.

I am, however, limited to sending about 10-15 emails at a time, which I can do by selecting the range when I click 'Finish and Merge.' Even at that, it is slow.

If an engineer reads this from MS, PLEASE DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING FOR A FEW WEEKS so I can keep using this.

If someone could fix the adobe pdf merge function, however, that would be ideal.