Mail Merge contacts

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Tx2

I have been, up till now, using a program called "Time & Chaos" within
which, i could highlight a 'contact', press a button, and it would merge
the contact details to a pre-formed letter of my choice.

Is there any way I can do this is Outlook 2003?

Thus far, I seem to have to open Word, open the letter, find the data I
want to merge, merge it, compose the letter, print it etc etc etc.....

I would like to be able to simply select a contact in Outlook 2003,
press a button, and merge the details with a pre-formed letter of my
choice. The letter would have pre-determined merge fields it would take
from the contact data, dependant on which letter it was.

It seems, I have to do the reverse; open the pre-formed letter, then go
thru a series of hoop jumps to eventually merge the data I need.

Surely there is an easier way?

If a program like Time & Chaos can achieve it, why can't the 'mighty'
Office Suite?

Any help greatly appreciated.
 
Mail merges will always involve Word, but you can start the merge from
Outlook.
To send a Form Letter or use a Custom Template for a new letter to a
Contact, you can use the Letter wizard invoked with the Actions... New
Letter to Contact. You can create custom templates for the Letter Wizard.

Take a look here for some other ways to merge Contact data to a new letter
to a Contact:
http://www.slipstick.com/contacts/startletter.htm
 
Mail merges will always involve Word
Click to expand...

yes, i appreciate that ... :-)
but you can start the merge from Outlook.
Click to expand...

OK ...
To send a Form Letter or use a Custom Template for a new letter to a
Contact, you can use the Letter wizard invoked with the Actions... New
Letter to Contact. You can create custom templates for the Letter Wizard.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, i can't see how to create "custom templates" using the Wizard.
"New letter to..." simply creates a blank letter with relevant fields
inserted at a pre-determined place.

I can certainly get it to merge by selecting a contact, tools/mail
merge, then selecting which document i want to merge to etc, but this
seems rather a lot of steps to take?

There seems no way of single button 'push to say "merge this contact
details to this document", or "to that document" as the case may be.

I have (as a minimum) 3 different Word documents I wish to merge to, and
would certainly appreciate a 1 button solution. A macro might be the
answer, but when the Word document opens, I still have to tell it to
merge.

My previous program would take the contact details, and merge them into
the right place at opening, I would be left with a Word document that
simply needed saving or printing.

This previous program's merge procedure was simply a case of "select
contact - select document file to merge to - merge"; all done off the
toolbar.

Not possible in Outlook?
Take a look here for some other ways to merge Contact data to a new letter
to a Contact:
http://www.slipstick.com/contacts/startletter.htm
Click to expand...

Thank you.
 
A macro might be the answer ...
Click to expand...

Except there's no way to record a macro as per Word per se?
You have to write it in visual basic?

Gah! All i want to do is take 'this' data (name, address etc) and put it
into 'that' document.

Why am I having to jump thru hoops? I must be missing something because
there just has to be an easier way?
 
For your custom letter template to appear in the list of Page Designs in the
Microsoft Word Letter Wizard, the letter templates you create must be saved
in the "Letters & Faxes folder Word 97) or the Templates\1033 folder (Word
2000 or 2002). The word "Letter" must be in the file name. Details here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q210884
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q291186


Once you have set up your Custom Template(s) you should see it as a choice
when you use the New Letter to Contact option in Outlook.

You cannot load boilerplate text in the body of the letter template. You
must create AutoText entries for the boilerplate. The easiest
thing to do would be to create one template and load the text for each
letter under its own style -- see KB article Q170342 (WD97) or Q207925
(OL2000 and higher).
 
[email protected] said:
For your custom letter template to appear in the list of Page Designs in the
Microsoft Word Letter Wizard, the letter templates you create must be saved
in the "Letters & Faxes folder Word 97) or the Templates\1033 folder (Word
2000 or 2002). The word "Letter" must be in the file name. Details here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q210884
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q291186


Once you have set up your Custom Template(s) you should see it as a choice
when you use the New Letter to Contact option in Outlook.

You cannot load boilerplate text in the body of the letter template. You
must create AutoText entries for the boilerplate. The easiest
thing to do would be to create one template and load the text for each
letter under its own style -- see KB article Q170342 (WD97) or Q207925
(OL2000 and higher)
Click to expand...


Yee gads Russ .... this ain't too easy is it?? How do 'normal' folk in
offices get on with this kind of stuff ??

I mean, i have a contacts name, and address details, and i want it to
appear in a pre-determined layout on a letter I have.

Time & Chaos may lack features that Outlook 2003 does, but it is soooo
easy to mail merge.

Guess i have a lot to learn about OL2003 .... next on the agenda is
ripping apart the form layout forced upon you for contacts. I just need
basic name and address details, plus one or two other data fields, but
oh boy, i get a whole raft of superfluous data entry fields in OL2003!

Thanks for the URLs and responses to my cries for help. Don't go away
now, will you!
 
No, it isn't anywhere near as easy as it should be. I wish it were. Outlook
is far more complicated than it needs to be for many of us because it was
created first and foremost to be the client software for Exchange Server.
For the rest of the world, it's an obese beast that could use some bariatric
surgery.
I rather liked Time & Chaos.
 
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