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Can I mail merge the name into the "To" box, with the email address?

  • I am using mail merge to send multiple emails but can't get the person's name in the "To:" box (or field), so it arrives with just their email address in "To." I have to fix this or work all night! If I could just use mail merge to put the "Display As" field, from Contacts, into the "To" box, it would work. But, apparently, I can't do that. Or can I? These are authorized, nice emails, hundreds I have to send today. I am using Word 2007 and Outlook Contacts 2007, and mail merge wizard. The wizard sends the email with only the recipient's email address in the "To" box, and that isn't personal enough. Outlook Contacts has a "Display As" field, which I'd love to put in the "To" part of the email, but I can't get this to work in mail merge. ("Display As" combines the "Name" and "Email" fields, I guess.) I have spent too long researching this as best I can, and all I can find is that "E-mail Displayed As" is an Outlook Contact field http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818851 I found a company selling a http://www.mapilab.com/outlook/mail_merge/ that I can download right now, but based on what is says it CAN do, it seems like it can't do what I need. It would take so much time to download and itstall it just to see it won't work..... Please don't recommend an email service.... That won't work right now. I am pretty desperate for help

  • Answer:

    Do you really think it matters whether the person's full name is in the To line? Almost nobody pays any attention to it.

swlabr at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

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When I receive emails in Outlook, my name is displayed no matter what the sender typed into the "to" field, because that's how my server is set up at work. I don't think that what you see in that box is necessarily what the recipient is going to see.

something something

1) Yes, I really think it matters. This is a matter of taste and opinion. Not an issue here, thanks. 2) When I send without mail merge, the contact's name is in the "To" box of the email. This is because the "To" box contains whatever is set, in the "Display As" field of the Outlook contact that mail merge is using. BUT with mail merge, the "To" box will not use the "Display As" field, only the "email" field is available. My recients email is shown as being to "[email protected]," rather than "Jane Doe" or "Jane Doe ." I need to have it show the name, which I guess would best be done by the merge using the "Display As" field from Contacts.

swlabr

Microsoft help: Up to 8 hours $259.00 Callback (schedule by using phone)

swlabr

The html editting didn't show the display as option, but it is "Jane Doe" folllowed by a the address inside the "greater than" and "less than" symbols. That'd be fine. I just need to use mail merge to somehow send one at a time... with the name in the "To" field.

swlabr

When you get to the last step in the wizard (Complete the Merge), click on the link that says Electronic Mail. From their you can put any field you want in the email address.

SuperSquirrel

their there Good grief!

SuperSquirrel

I use the Mail Merge Toolkit at work, and it normally uses just the actual email address, not the display field. I dont' believe that it will allow you to do what you want. Some thoughts: - Can you personalize the actual email, so that it doesn't matter that the To: field is only the email address? For example, I often put the first and last name, along with their affiliation, at the top of emails (without a salutation), which makes it more personal than a normal mass email. -Could you export your contacts to an Excel spreadsheet so that it shows the display name, then use the spreadsheet as the mail merge source instead? (I dont' know for sure that you can include the display field in the export. If not, you could try constructing a display-like field using the http://www.techonthenet.com/excel/formulas/concat.php formula in Excel, then placing that field in the mail merge To: )

gemmy

I recommend what gemmy said. Export your contacts to Excel. Put the desired "To:" name in the A column, then put the corresponding email addresses in the B column. In column C, your formula needs to be ="'"&A1&"'"&" "" The ouput in column C will read 'Name' >

yoyoceramic

oh shame.... metafilter zapped my code... that's what I get for neglecting the preview.

yoyoceramic

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