Automatically Populates Person To Send Email To

Hi - I'm trying to personalize a group email. I have a group. I am an email.
I'd like to begin the email with a personalized salutation (Dear Bob or
Sally or whatever) but can't seem to figure out how to do that.

Any suggestions on how I can do this?

I'm currently working in Entourage (obviously), but am open to other
options/systems - just would like to try to accomplish my goal, above.

Thanks,

SueAnn

Michel
Mon Jan 08 11:48:16 CST 2007

Hi SueAnn,

this can be done more or less easily on the Mac, but you'll have to use Word
instead of Entourage. In Word, open a new document, then go to Tools>Data
Merge Manager. A new palette will show up, and you'll have to select a
couple of options. In the "Create" section, choose "Form Letters". Specify
"Office Address Book" as the source. Now start typing your e-mail in the
Word document and drag some of the fields from the "Merge Field" section
into your document, e.g. if you want your final e-mail to read "Dear Bob /
Sally", write "Dear" and then drag the First_Name field from the DMM palette
into your document. When you're done with the text, make sure you expand the
"Merge" section at the very bottom of the palette and click on "Query
Options". That's where you will encounter a small problem: Word will only
let you select specific Entourage categories instead of contact groups. So
if I were you, I'd assign everyone you want to e-mail like this to a
specific category (you might even set one up just for that specific
purpose). Select the appropriate category in Word, then click on the small
document/envelope/arrow icon next to "Query Options" to pass the document on
to Entourage. The end result in your outbox should be just what you want.

Alternatively, since you're open to other options, you might want to try
Address Book/Mail/Automator, that is if you are using Mac OS X 10.4.x.
Automator offers a workflow that allows you to do just what you want, and
even though it is quite obscure to set up, once you've done it, it can be
very easily repeated. Let me know if you'd prefer to use these applications
instead of Entourage/Word, and I can post instructions for the workflow in
here.

On 8/1/07 16:16, in article C1C7BC89.9624%sueann@austin.rr.com, "SueAnn
Wade-Crouse" <sueann@austin.rr.com> wrote:

> Hi - I'm trying to personalize a group email. I have a group. I am an email.
> I'd like to begin the email with a personalized salutation (Dear Bob or
> Sally or whatever) but can't seem to figure out how to do that.
>
> Any suggestions on how I can do this?
>
> I'm currently working in Entourage (obviously), but am open to other
> options/systems - just would like to try to accomplish my goal, above.
>
> Thanks,
>
> SueAnn
>

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***

SueAnn
Mon Jan 08 14:14:14 CST 2007

Michele:

I'll try plan "A" first as I'm familiar with the Merge Manager. Simply
forgot that email was an option with that function - I've never used it
before so simply overlooked. Hopefully this will work. Since I've already
got my group assigned to a specific category, this should work wonderfully -
theoretically anyway.

Thanks for the help,

SueAnn


On 1/8/07 11:48 AM, in article C1C84270.1E80B%m.bintener@NOSPAMmvps.org,
"Michel Bintener" <m.bintener@NOSPAMmvps.org> wrote:

> Hi SueAnn,
>
> this can be done more or less easily on the Mac, but you'll have to use Word
> instead of Entourage. In Word, open a new document, then go to Tools>Data
> Merge Manager. A new palette will show up, and you'll have to select a
> couple of options. In the "Create" section, choose "Form Letters". Specify
> "Office Address Book" as the source. Now start typing your e-mail in the
> Word document and drag some of the fields from the "Merge Field" section
> into your document, e.g. if you want your final e-mail to read "Dear Bob /
> Sally", write "Dear" and then drag the First_Name field from the DMM palette
> into your document. When you're done with the text, make sure you expand the
> "Merge" section at the very bottom of the palette and click on "Query
> Options". That's where you will encounter a small problem: Word will only
> let you select specific Entourage categories instead of contact groups. So
> if I were you, I'd assign everyone you want to e-mail like this to a
> specific category (you might even set one up just for that specific
> purpose). Select the appropriate category in Word, then click on the small
> document/envelope/arrow icon next to "Query Options" to pass the document on
> to Entourage. The end result in your outbox should be just what you want.
>
> Alternatively, since you're open to other options, you might want to try
> Address Book/Mail/Automator, that is if you are using Mac OS X 10.4.x.
> Automator offers a workflow that allows you to do just what you want, and
> even though it is quite obscure to set up, once you've done it, it can be
> very easily repeated. Let me know if you'd prefer to use these applications
> instead of Entourage/Word, and I can post instructions for the workflow in
> here.
>
> On 8/1/07 16:16, in article C1C7BC89.9624%sueann@austin.rr.com, "SueAnn
> Wade-Crouse" <sueann@austin.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi - I'm trying to personalize a group email. I have a group. I am an email.
>> I'd like to begin the email with a personalized salutation (Dear Bob or
>> Sally or whatever) but can't seem to figure out how to do that.
>>
>> Any suggestions on how I can do this?
>>
>> I'm currently working in Entourage (obviously), but am open to other
>> options/systems - just would like to try to accomplish my goal, above.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> SueAnn
>>