Mail Merging with User Defined Fields from BCM

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On creating a mail merge through BCM Contact, why is it not possible to
include the Custom fields that have been created in a Business Contact
Form....

Its a bit of a step backwards from the Microsoft Office development team...

Is there going to be an update to make this possible, as i dont want to
start purchasing other products to do this... nor do i want to have to create
a access database to look up the data, then create a letter, its very long
winded and unnecessary....

PLEASE GIVE ME SOME GOOD NEWS MICROSOFT....
 
You say future release, how much in the future, as we have now spent out on
23 copies of office 2007SBE to use BCM as a replacment for ACT! to find we
are going backwards in technoligy and not forwards.... it just wont do this
simple thing.... is there another way that we can achive what we want to do
now. automation through asp, xml or something?

I even tried to connect to the sql database table directly in word to add
the fields, but no data is displayed even though it shows the fields.
(UserField1->40)
I can connect to the sql tables through Access and it displays the data, but
this is very long winded to do a simple task of creating a mail merge letter.

and just to repeat what it is we want to do...

create a mail merge letter including a few of the user-defiend fields we
have created.

Monica Tsang (MSFT) said:
Hi Martin

Thank you for your question. Unfortunately BCM does not currently support
this functionality, however we will consider it for future releases.

You may however find the following useful:
http://blogs.msdn.com/bcm/archive/2...-letters-and-e-mail-to-business-contacts.aspx

Thanks,
Monica Tsang [MSFT]

Martin Stockwell said:
On creating a mail merge through BCM Contact, why is it not possible to
include the Custom fields that have been created in a Business Contact
Form....

Its a bit of a step backwards from the Microsoft Office development team...

Is there going to be an update to make this possible, as i dont want to
start purchasing other products to do this... nor do i want to have to create
a access database to look up the data, then create a letter, its very long
winded and unnecessary....

PLEASE GIVE ME SOME GOOD NEWS MICROSOFT....
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I agree whole heartedly: the custom fields are useless if you can't actually
use them to filter. Otherwise what use are they? I'd love to see the use
cases in the spec. Did you talk to any customers before you implemented this
feature, Microsoft?

Monica Tsang (MSFT) said:
Hi Martin

Thank you for your question. Unfortunately BCM does not currently support
this functionality, however we will consider it for future releases.

You may however find the following useful:
http://blogs.msdn.com/bcm/archive/2...-letters-and-e-mail-to-business-contacts.aspx

Thanks,
Monica Tsang [MSFT]

Martin Stockwell said:
On creating a mail merge through BCM Contact, why is it not possible to
include the Custom fields that have been created in a Business Contact
Form....

Its a bit of a step backwards from the Microsoft Office development team...

Is there going to be an update to make this possible, as i dont want to
start purchasing other products to do this... nor do i want to have to create
a access database to look up the data, then create a letter, its very long
winded and unnecessary....

PLEASE GIVE ME SOME GOOD NEWS MICROSOFT....
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
AFter reviewing theis site for over 2 years I have finally found some useful
information. Monica Thank-you.

The only question I have is - does this now post a note to teh contact that
you jsut created a letter for so that you know it was done?



Monica Tsang (MSFT) said:
Hi Martin

Thank you for your question. Unfortunately BCM does not currently support
this functionality, however we will consider it for future releases.

You may however find the following useful:
http://blogs.msdn.com/bcm/archive/2...-letters-and-e-mail-to-business-contacts.aspx

Thanks,
Monica Tsang [MSFT]

Martin Stockwell said:
On creating a mail merge through BCM Contact, why is it not possible to
include the Custom fields that have been created in a Business Contact
Form....

Its a bit of a step backwards from the Microsoft Office development team...

Is there going to be an update to make this possible, as i dont want to
start purchasing other products to do this... nor do i want to have to create
a access database to look up the data, then create a letter, its very long
winded and unnecessary....

PLEASE GIVE ME SOME GOOD NEWS MICROSOFT....
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Martin - I used the macro Monica provided and I create letters and proposals
from BCM with alot of data pulled from my contacts. It works easily. I
don't know if it does not pull all of the datafields but it works.

I just miss it logging the task just created as in ACT and attaching that
document just created.

Eric

Martin Stockwell said:
You say future release, how much in the future, as we have now spent out on
23 copies of office 2007SBE to use BCM as a replacment for ACT! to find we
are going backwards in technoligy and not forwards.... it just wont do this
simple thing.... is there another way that we can achive what we want to do
now. automation through asp, xml or something?

I even tried to connect to the sql database table directly in word to add
the fields, but no data is displayed even though it shows the fields.
(UserField1->40)
I can connect to the sql tables through Access and it displays the data, but
this is very long winded to do a simple task of creating a mail merge letter.

and just to repeat what it is we want to do...

create a mail merge letter including a few of the user-defiend fields we
have created.

Monica Tsang (MSFT) said:
Hi Martin

Thank you for your question. Unfortunately BCM does not currently support
this functionality, however we will consider it for future releases.

You may however find the following useful:
http://blogs.msdn.com/bcm/archive/2...-letters-and-e-mail-to-business-contacts.aspx

Thanks,
Monica Tsang [MSFT]

Martin Stockwell said:
On creating a mail merge through BCM Contact, why is it not possible to
include the Custom fields that have been created in a Business Contact
Form....

Its a bit of a step backwards from the Microsoft Office development team...

Is there going to be an update to make this possible, as i dont want to
start purchasing other products to do this... nor do i want to have to create
a access database to look up the data, then create a letter, its very long
winded and unnecessary....

PLEASE GIVE ME SOME GOOD NEWS MICROSOFT....
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
So it is true that I can't mail merge my custom fields from Business Contact
Manager with a mail merge?

All I want to do is to be able to make a simple invoice with word... but it
appears I can't add any of my custom fields.

What a drag!

~Jason
 
That is correct.

Microsoft wants you to go to word and do a mail merge for the one document.
Which is quite combersome and a waste of time.

There is a macro somewhere on this site to create a "Bussiness.Letter" using
the marketing campaign. It works basically like the old create letter used
to work in Outlook.

Sorry I can't tell you where I found this but if you search on outlook
letter from contacts you should be able to find it.

Good Luck - It is obvious that MS developers don't use their own product in
real work situations.
 
That is correct.

Microsoft wants you to go to word and do a mail merge for the one document.
Which is quite combersome and a waste of time.

There is a macro somewhere on this site to create a "Bussiness.Letter" using
the marketing campaign. It works basically like the old create letter used
to work in Outlook.

Sorry I can't tell you where I found this but if you search on outlook
letter from contacts you should be able to find it.

Good Luck - It is obvious that MS developers don't use their own product in
real work situations.







- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

"It is obvious that MS developers don't use their own product in real
work situations."

Understandable, as I've heard the company now has over a billion
customers. If they did use it, BCM would have a Halo 3 skin.
 
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