2. does mail-merge only work with Outlook or
does it
work with the default mail-client?
Mailmerge may use your "email client" for two different things:
A. as a source of addresses
B. as a client for sending the emails.
As far as (A) is concerned...
1. Word mailmerge can use address info. from Outlook contact lists in
two different ways:
a. you initiate the merge from Outlook Tools->Mail merge..., in which
case Outlook creates a temporary file containing the addresses and
attaches that to the mailmerge main document. Other e-mail/address book
clients may do something similar
b. you specify an Outlook Address book in the merge setup process.
THis tends not to work so well as (a), and does not let you use as much
of the data in Contacts folders.
2. Word cannot use address info. from Outlook Express (i.e. "Windows
Address Book") or Vista "Windows Contacts" directly - you have to export
the data as a seperate step
3. To use address/contact info. in other e-mail/contact clients, either
a. that software has to hold its data in a format that Word mailmerge
already knows how to access or
b. that software has to provide a mechanism that mailmerge can use to
access its data (e.g. an ODBC driver, OLEDB provider, or Word text
converter) or
c. there will have to be a separate export step.
As far as (B) is concerned...
1. Mailmerge from Word requires a MAPI-compliant email client.
2. For plain text emails and "attachment" merges, "simple MAPI" is
enough - for example, Outlook Express and Vista Mail are OK. Other
clients you would need to check for yourself.
3. For HTML format merges, "Extended MAPI" is required, andas far as I
am aware, only the full Outlook does Extended MAPI.
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk