Help With E-Mail Merge With Word 2007 and Vista's Windows Mail

[Mike McCollister]

I have been using Microsoft Word 2003 for a while to do some e-mail mail
merge with Outlook Express for years. Well, I just switched over my e-mail
to my Vista machine with Office 2007. For some reason Word does not see that
Windows Mail exists and that under the "Finish and Merge" button the "Send
E-mail Messages..." button is grayed out.

I did found this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918792

Now that I have done this the "Send E-mail Messages..." is not grayed out
but when I try to send something nothing happens. Windows Mail does not seem
to see that Word is trying to send an e-mail.
Anyone have a solution to this?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Mike McCollister]

OK. I have found that if I select my mail format to be plain text instead of
HTML then it works OK. That is fine as I want to send it as plain text.
However, I can't get the plain text option to stick when I close and open
word again. Any ideas on how to make this feature stick?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Peter Jamieson]

If you are trying to send HTML format e-mails they will /probably/ just
disappear because Windows Mail cannot cope with them and (AFAIK) does not
flag an error. Outlook Express does the same. With text format or
"attachment" format the emails should at least get through to the email
program.

(FWIW here I have Vista + Outlook + Windows Mail and HTML mails were sent
via Outlook even when I tried to configure things so that emails went via
Windows Mail. Plain text went via Windows Mail)

 

[Mike McCollister]

Peter,

Thanks for the info. Sending as text makes it work.

Right now my main problem is Word 2007 not remembering that I want to send
as text after I close and open Word. This was not a problem in Word 2002.

Mike

 

[Peter Jamieson]

AFAICS in Word 2003 Word remembered the setting for the document, but
otherwise defaulted to HTML. A closer look tells me that that worked if you
saved as .doc but not as .htm or .xml. In 2007 it seems to forget the
setting for the document whatever format you save in.

So no, at the moment I cannot see a way to make this "sticky."

 

[Peter Jamieson]

In 2007 it seems to forget the setting for the document whatever format

you save in.

Incidentally, this is probably because the XML schema for Word does not have
an element or attribute that lets you specify the mail format. At least in
Word 2003 WordProcessingML.

 

[Mike McCollister]

Peter,

Thanks for checking this out. I guess that I'll have to live with it.

Happy new year!

Mike

 

[Robin S]

I was able to send html script (links) in my word mailmerge in 2003. With
2007 it doesn't want to send. After 25 it stops merging. Is this the
problem you were having?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

was able to send html script (links)

Do you have a sample I could try here? (you can despam my address - remove
"KillmapS") and e-mail me if you like.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

NB, can you confirm that this is with WIndows Mail, or is it with Outlook
2007 (or another version of Outlook)?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Thanks - any samples that would help me replicate the problem could be
useful (e.g. a sample including whatever "html script (links)" you are
using. (As per my other nearby message).

 

[Peter Jamieson]

If you can find a crash ID (from Application Event Logs in the Event
Viewer), someone at MS may be able to find out if this is being
investigated.

Assuming something is actually crashing, that is...