Word and Outlook mailmerge notes

These notes are using the Word, Excel, and Outlook applications on Windows. There may be variations for the web versions or on Mac or Linux.

For sending emails to many people (more than a couple dozen), please consider using a listserv or getting help from IT Communications.

Drawbacks of using mail-merge:

• Emails are sent from your default email account in Outlook. No way to change this.
• The cc, bcc, and reply-to fields cannot be changed automatically, only manually for each email.

Overall Process

1. Put together your data in an XLSX file. Make sure to have a column for email addresses.

2. Start a DOCX file in Word.

3. Click "Mailings" in the ribbon.

4. Click "Start Mail Merge" to open a dropdown menu, then select "E-mail messages".

5. Click "Select Recipients" to open a dropdown menu, then select "Use an existing list...", then find the XLSX file in the dialog box.

6. Compose your email template.

   • Use "Insert Merge Field" to add information from the XLSX file.
   • "Highlight Merge Fields" can be helpful to see the fields.
   • "Preview Results" can be helpful to see what the field data will look like in the final email.
   • See below for information on formatting fields and other tips.

7. In Outlook, go to "Send/Receive" in the ribbon.

8. IMPORTANT Click "Work Offline" to disconnect from the Exchange server, preventing the immediate sending of emails. The button will be highlighted while you are offline. This will be unwound when we are ready to send.

9. In Word, click "Finish & Merge" to open a dropdown menu, then select "Send E-mail messages..."

10. In the dialog box, select the email field for the "To" field. Add the subject line. Fill in the rest of the information as needed. Generally it will be HTML format and send to All. The generated emails will appear in your Outlook Outbox.

11. If you wish, change the reply-to email addresses or make any other customized changes to each mail.

12. When you are prepared to send the emails, toggle "Work Offline" so that you connect to the server.

Tips

• You can change the formatting of number and date fields.
  • Use ++alt+f9++ to change the fields from their name or display value to their definition.
  • You can then edit the definition to add formatting or perform calculations.
  • Add the curly brace "field" operator ({ }) using ++ctrl+f9++. You may need this to perform calculations on a field. It is not generally needed to add formatting.
  • Use the \# switch to format the field as a number, and \@ as a date. More information at: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/format-field-results-baa61f5a-5636-4f11-ab4f-6c36ae43508c

Example fields

• { MERGEFIELD "tb_over_180D" \# ##0.0 } will display values as numbers with up to three digits left of the decimal, and always show at least one place right of the decimal, so 120.512 becomes 120.5 and 0.567 becomes 0.5.
• { = { MERGEFIELD M_180D } * 100 \# "##0.0%"} will display fractional values as percentages, always with one place left and right of the decimal, so 0.1234 becomes 12.3% and 0.0012 becomes 0.1%.

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