How to personalise newsletters published in html

[Valiant Halborg]

I am publishing a newsletter using MS Frontpage 2002. I
wish to personalise these newsletter and so I am looking
for a feature similar to MS Word's mail merge facility in
MS Frontpage 2002. Can I insert a "merge field" (MS Word
terminology)into my html newsletter which refers to my
database of subscribers ?

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,

Valiant Halborg
(e-mail address removed)

 

[JL Amerson]

Why are you using a program for websites to create a newsletter? Wouldn't it
be better to use a program specifically made for that purpose? Just asking -
not be argumentative.

 

[Jim Buyens]

You would have to program this in ASP, ASP.NET, or a
Windows app. The app would have to read through your
database of subscribers and then, for each subscriber,
retrieve a copy of the HTML and mail it.

Personally, I'd go with a Windows app, because you won't
have problems with it timing out on the Web server.

The CDO.Message object has a method named CreateMHTMLBody
Method that's very nice for this sort of thing. You give
it the http:// URL of a Web page, and it converts the
page into the HTML body of an e-mail message. And if that
URL specifies an ASP or ASP.NET page, the page can easily
customize itself based on query string variables or any
other factor.

I suspect this may be more complicated than you were
hoping for, but it's the simplest solution that comes to
mind.

Jim Buyens
Microsoft FrontPage MVP
http://www.interlacken.com
Author of:
*----------------------------------------------------
|\---------------------------------------------------
|| Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 Inside Out
||---------------------------------------------------
|| Web Database Development Step by Step .NET Edition
|| Microsoft FrontPage Version 2002 Inside Out
|| Faster Smarter Beginning Programming
|| (All from Microsoft Press)
|/---------------------------------------------------
*----------------------------------------------------

 

[Jim Buyens]

Why are you using a program for websites to create a newsletter? Wouldn't it
be better to use a program specifically made for that purpose? Just asking -
not be argumentative.

This is actually a fairly common request. People want to create
newsletters in HTML mail format that are more elaborate than the
built-in Outlook editor can produce.

Jim Buyens
Microsoft FrontPage MVP
http://www.interlacken.com
Author of:
*----------------------------------------------------
|\---------------------------------------------------
|| Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 Inside Out
||---------------------------------------------------
|| Web Database Development Step by Step .NET Edition
|| Microsoft FrontPage Version 2002 Inside Out
|| Faster Smarter Beginning Programming
|| (All from Microsoft Press)
|/---------------------------------------------------
*----------------------------------------------------

 

[Valiant]

Good point ! Thanks for your response !

Do you know of any applications or programs suitable for
that purpose ?

 

[Valiant]

Thanks for your reply!! What sort of Windows app are you
referring to ?

It is nice when it is not too complicated, but I am happy
to take this further if someone can point me in the right
direction, as you already have. Thanks for that! Any
further comments you wish to make regarding this will be
greatly appreciated!

Regards,

Valiant Halborg
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

There are two ways to handle this that I can think of...

1. Create the newsletter in FP, save and open in Word and use the merge
function.

2. Create the newsletter in MS Publisher, and use it's merge function.

--

==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

 

[JL Amerson]

I use Publisher to create my newsletters. I send a paper copy and post a
..pdf version on a secured site for those who prefer. Thomas has responded
that you can do a merge. I've never done that but it is nice to know that if
I'd ever need to send something via email, I could bypass the .pdf step.
(But I gotta tell you, I LOVE being able to create .pdfs. Everything is so
much easiey that way. No cross-platform issues, no concern over who's using
which ISP or software. And my subscribers love seeing the newsletter in
color.)

 

[Jim Buyens]

Thanks for your reply!! What sort of Windows app are you
referring to ?

It is nice when it is not too complicated, but I am happy
to take this further if someone can point me in the right
direction, as you already have. Thanks for that! Any
further comments you wish to make regarding this will be
greatly appreciated!

You could write such a thing in VB6, Visual Basic .NET, C#, or (if you
eat nails for breakfast) C++.

The trouble with writing long-running processes as ASP or ASP.NET
pages is that Web pages usually time out after 30 seconds. And if
you're personalizing each copy of your newsletter per recipient,
you'll need to send them out one at a time, and who knows low long
each one might take? The mail server or the network may be busy, or
not.

Jim Buyens
Microsoft FrontPage MVP
http://www.interlacken.com
Author of:
*----------------------------------------------------
|\---------------------------------------------------
|| Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 Inside Out
||---------------------------------------------------
|| Web Database Development Step by Step .NET Edition
|| Microsoft FrontPage Version 2002 Inside Out
|| Faster Smarter Beginning Programming
|| (All from Microsoft Press)
|/---------------------------------------------------
*----------------------------------------------------

 

[JL Amerson]

Yes, I use Acrobat. I am fortunate that the organization that I belong to
purchased the software for me specifically for this purpose. No questions
asked - they felt the money was well spent.

I'm going to suggest you visit http://www.mvps.org/publisher/sharing.html.
Brian has links for some of the other programs that will convert to a .pdf
format. My understanding is that they work rather well and put less of a
hole in your wallet (can be as little as $35).