Can you do a mail merge with excel and word where you have both an email message and an attachement.

Question

Can you do a mail merge with excel and word where you have both an email message and an attachement.

For example, I would like to do a merge from a spreadsheet and word document to create both a custom email and a custom document. Then I would like to attach the custom document to the custom email and send it.

Extra bonus points if the custom email was html and the custom document was created as a pdf

Answer 1

Dear @Amber Hurst (amhurst),

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum!

Thanks for the question, this is a very common and reasonable requirement. I would like to give you some insights in this case.

Microsoft Word and Excel by themselves cannot do this end‑to‑end. Word’s built‑in Mail Merge can create personalized emails or personalized documents, but it cannot attach a different document to each merged email. This may consider as by design of the product.

Because of that, scenarios like:

• one custom email per recipient and
• one custom document (for example, a PDF) attached to that email

aren’t supported directly by Word/Excel mail merge.

While Word Mail Merge by itself cannot achieve this, I made an effort to identify possible alternatives. However, most of the solutions are from third‑party sources, so you should evaluate them carefully and use them at your own responsibility:

• Option 1 - Word/Outlook add‑ins (desktop‑based):

There are third‑party add‑ins for Word/Outlook that extend mail merge to allow attachments. These work only with the Outlook desktop app and require additional software/licensing. They can be suitable for one‑off or smaller‑scale sends. Please see more details in here: https://www.mapilab.com/blog/mail-merge-attachments-outlook/

• Option 2 - Adobe Acrobat integration:

If the primary goal is generating and emailing PDFs, Adobe Acrobat can merge Word templates into individual PDFs and email them. This is reliable but less flexible for advanced email customization. Please see more details in here: https://itstraining.wichita.edu/word-mail-merge-with-pdf-attachments/

• Option 3 - Power Automate (I apologize that Microsoft Q&A does not support this feature. If you’re interested, you can check the Power Platform Community, where this is supported):

This may be flexible and fully supported Microsoft 365 solution.

With Power Automate, you may:

• read recipient data from Excel or SharePoint
• populate a Word template with that data
• convert the document to PDF
• send an HTML email
• attach the recipient’s own PDF
• repeat automatically for each row

This approach is commonly used for invoices, statements, certificates, contracts, and similar scenarios. I find an article that may be related to it: https://www.enjoysharepoint.com/convert-word-to-pdf-using-power-automate/

Note: This information is provided as a convenience to you. These sites are not controlled by Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks before using any suggestions from the above links.

I hope this information can give you some insights and please let me know how things go on your side as your update can also assist others in the community who may be facing the same issue.

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Answer 2

The simplest solution [assuming you want to send a copy of the same attachment to each recipient] is to not use an attachment at all. Instead, store the PDF on a cloud such as OneDrive then include a share link in the Main Email Document. This method also helps to ensure that the message will not be blocked or wind up in a Junk/Spam bucket.

Answer 3

Yes, you can perform a mail merge using Excel and Word to create a custom email message and attach a document to it. However, there are some limitations to be aware of:

1. Mail Merge for Email: You can use Word to create a mail merge for sending emails. The email can be customized based on the data from your Excel spreadsheet.
2. Attachments: To attach a document to each email, you will need to use a third-party tool or add-in, as the standard mail merge feature in Word does not support attachments directly. One such tool is the Merge Tools Add-in, which allows you to merge emails with attachments.
3. HTML Emails: You can format your email as HTML, but this may require additional steps or tools, as the default mail merge functionality primarily generates plain text emails.
4. PDF Documents: You can create a custom document in Word and save it as a PDF before attaching it to the email. The Merge Tools Add-in can also facilitate sending documents as PDF attachments.

In summary, while you can achieve your goal with the right tools and processes, the built-in capabilities of Word and Excel alone may not suffice for sending emails with attachments directly from a mail merge.