There's another way, in Office 2004, that's built in.
First, you must make sure that all the members of your group are contacts in
their own right (not just entered as name + email address in the group), and
that every member also has a Category equivalent to the group name. So first
go to Edit/Categories/Edit Categories, and create a Category of the
appropriate name, and give it a color. Click OK.
Make sure every contact has an email address, naturally. (The simplest way
to make contacts as members of a group is to select them in the address
book, and press the Add Group button. You don't need a script.) But for this
method you don't even need that. While the contacts are selected select
Edit/Categories/Assign Category, and assign the Category you created. (If
some of the contacts already have different categories, you can decide now
whether you want the new one to be Primary - showing the color - or not, by
pressing the Set Primary button, or not.)
Now switch to Word. That's right - Word 2004. Open a New Blank Document.
Compose your message here, leaving blanks after a salutation such as "Dear "
if you want to be able to personalize the messages to each recipient. (You
can't do that by the script versions Allen suggested.)
In the Tools column, choose Data Merge Manager. In fact, read up on the Data
Merge Manager in Word Help before going on. Then select in its list of
functions, beginning at the top,
Create/Form Letters
Data Source/Office Address Book [that's your Entourage address book]
[Word Field/ you probably don't need any here]
Merge Field/ drag First_Name, or Title and Last_Name, etc. to the place
in the document where you want the contact's name(s) inserted, and add any
punctuation needed. Include Address too if desired, etc.
[Preview/ if you want to see how it will look]
Query Options (in Merge section)/ Here's where you can first Clear
categories, then choose just the Category you made for your list!
Merge/ click the 3rd button - Merge to Email (hover over it to verify)
A window pops up where you enter a subject for the email, and you can choose
whether the email will be plain Text or HTML (keeping the nice formatting of
your Word document - you can even include a letterhead, etc.) Then click
Data Merge to Outbox, and all the email messages get made in Entourage. You
can then press cmd-shift-K (Send All) in Entourage to send them all out, or
wait for your next Send & Receive All to do it automatically.
(If your ISP refuses to send all 500 at one time (unlikely), select and move
all except as many as are allowed (99, or 49, e.g.) to Drafts, then Send
All, and keep moving batches to the Outbox and Send All. But this should not
be necessary. If it is, you'd need the same technique for the script methods
too, and I've never heard of it being needed.)
--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <
http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <
http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>
Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.
PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
