email merge

[Elizabeth]

When I use my Excel spreadsheet it only sends the email to the first person
on the list. I recreated the spreadsheet from scratch and the same thing
happened. At one point it gives me this drop down box that says 'select
recipient field from the list'....and only the first name on the list is
there. I don't have a clue what I'm doing wrong here. I don't want to have
to type in 300+ email addresses by hand.

 

[Mary Sauer]

What version Publisher?

How are you setting up the email?

You cannot specify an address in the Cc box, an address in the Bcc box, or text
in the body of an e-mail message in a "mailto" hyperlink in Office programs
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916858/en-us

 

[Ian]

I have got it working fine with 100 recipients using Excel so I don't think
you'll have to do it all again. I can't see a way to recreate your problem
without your files though, sorry.

 

[Elizabeth]

I'm using Publisher 2007 and Excel 2007...and Outlook 2007.

In PUblisher I'm selecting the email merge option and then following the
steps there. I'm not trying to insert any other text.

 

[Elizabeth]

OK...when it says "Select email merge output"...right below that it says
'select an email account and send your publication as customized email
messages' When I click on that it only lists the first name on my Excel list
there.

 

[Ian]

It appears to me that the email client hasn't been established properly. I
choose send e-mail - send e-mail merge - Merge to E-mail box appears - Select
recipient field from the list - chosen recipients can be previewed - add
subject and send. I am not asked to "Select email merge output" Try opening
Outlook express with some dummy account and choose it as default program for
e-mail under tools and then open Publisher again.

 

[Elizabeth]

Ian,

When I do that I get the 'select recipient field from the list' Instead of
my Excel spreadsheet I get the first NAME on the Excel spreadsheet. That's
all I can choose. Therefore, it only gets sent to that person. I was under
the assumption that my Excel spreadsheet would appear there for me to select.
The only way that I can see to do this is to input the 300+ names and emails
by hand.

 

[Elizabeth]

When I do that it says 'select recipient field from the list' and the only
thing that's listed there is the first peson on my Excel list.

 

[Mary Sauer]

Elizabeth, Scroll down on the task pane and open the "Help with E-mail Merge." I
am not having your issues with Outlook and Publisher. I setup a database with
email addresses and nothing else. The merge worked flawlessly.

 

[Elizabeth]

When I click on that first name I then go to send the emails....THEN...it
tells me that the next name on the list, isn't recognized by Outlook. It's
says,

"If you have used a comma to separate addresses; click Cancel, replace the
commas with semicolons, and then click Send again."

I'm not sure what to do. In my Excel spreadsheet the first field is the
name of the recipient like this...<last name, first name>. The second field
is the email address. Is this not the proper way to do it?

 

[Ian]

When you go to the drop down menu for 'select recipient field from the list'
you should see the heading row of your Excel spreadsheet where you picked the
fields for your message. One of your headings/fields will be the 'E-mail
Address' for each recipient.

 

[Elizabeth]

I read the help section several times...without any luck. No matter what I
do it doesn't want to send to anything other than the first thing on the
list. Everything else is unrecognized.

 

[Elizabeth]

I just tried typing in 3 emails by hand....and only 2 got sent.

 

[Ian]

Elizabeth

I have added my e-mail address to my profile. If you would like to send me
the Excel file or part of it then I can check if that works OK. Don't start
re-entering information yet.

 

[Elizabeth]

Well....I tried it at home and exactly the same thing happened. Here's what
I do:

I go Tools - Email Merge
I check "Use an existing list"
I then check ""Next: Create or connect to a recipient list"
I go to the folder where I have my Excel file and select the file
A window pops up called "Select Table" and 3 'Sheets" are shown. I don't
know why 3 are shown here since I have only one Excel file.
I select the first "Sheet" since it won't let me select all of them.
I hit "OK"
Now I see the information in my Excel spreadsheet arranged in a little
table. The first row in the table looks like a heading of some sort as it's
gray. That's where the first name in my list is. It says "data source"
there.
Below that are the next three names in my Excel file.
I have no idea what to do here so I just hit "OK".
Now, I click on "Next: Create merged publication"
Now, I click on 'send email"
A small box pops up that's called "send email"
The "To" box says "select recipient field from the list"
The drop down box shows the first name in my Excel spreadsheet. That's it.
That's all I have to choose from.
I hit 'send' and it says that I'm about to send 3 email messages. Huh?
There are FOUR in my Excel file. Ok, I hit 'send'
Now, another box pops up that's called "Check names" The first name
encountered says 'no matches found'
A box next to that says 'show more names'
If I click on that it gives me another box that asks me to 'select whom you
mean by'...

Ok, at this point I'm obviously NOT doing something correctly. I have no
idea what it is. I figure that it must be the manner in which I'm creating
my Excel file. Is there some special way to do it that I'm not yet privy to?
The first column is the name and the second column is the email address.

 

[Mary Sauer]

Excel data needs the first row of cells to be a title or similar.

 

[Ian]

And this is why you only sent your message to 3 names instead of 4. The first
row of the Excel sheet is considered a title row but your first row has one
of the names you are trying to send the e-mail to.

 

[Elizabeth]

I just changed the top row and called it 'name'. The same thing still
happens. It goes through the list and says that it doesn't 'recognize' these
names. In column A I have the name written like this:

last name, first name

In column B I have the email address.

That's it. Is this not right?

 

[Ian]

That all seems right. No more ideas I'm afraid. You're still welcome to send
me the file if you want.