How To: Merge Word Documents with Outlook for Mass Messaging

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Title: How To: Merge Word Documents with Outlook for Mass Messaging

Audience: Staff / Faculty

Applies to: M365 Outlook

Category: Communication and Collaboration

Prerequisites: CNC Account and delegation to a Shared Mailbox
 

Problem: User can't use a shared mailbox in mail merge scenario
 

Description / Summary: To send emails to a large number of recipients, senders can use mail merge functionality with content from Microsoft Word. Below are the steps that must be completed.

Step 1 - Create a new profile for the shared mailbox in Outlook

Typically, the shared mailbox for your department appears as a second mailbox in your Outlook when you log in as yourself. However, to use mail merge for your department, you will need to create a second profile specifically for your department's shared mailbox so that this shared mailbox is the default sender for the message.

  1. Close Outlook (if open)
  2. Open Control Panel (Press Windows key, type "control panel")
  3. Select "Mail" > then click on "Show Profiles" > click on Add.
  4. Enter the department shared mailbox name (ex. Office of the -----)  and click OK.
  5. Click Manual setup or additional server types and click Next.
  6. Click Office 365 and enter the email address for the department shared mailbox, then click Next. ***If this does not appear, you may see a screen where Your Name and Your Email address is blank. Enter the name of the department and the email address for the department shared mailbox (ex. Officeofthe-----@stevens.edu). Leave both password fields blank and click Next.
  7. A Windows security pop-up box will appear. Enter your Stevens email address and password. Click OK.
  8. Open Control Panel > click Mail > click Show Profiles and select Prompt for a profile to be used. Click OK.
  9. Open Outlook and select the newly-configured profile (this will now pop up whenever Outlook is opened so that you can choose between your Stevens mailbox and the department shared mailbox.)

 

Step 2 - Prepare Microsoft Word

The merged file is a combination of the Word document with your message, and the mailing list.

  1. Open the document in Microsoft Word, and click on the Mailings tab.
  2. Click Select Recipients and go to “Use Existing List”
  3.  Use the dialog box to navigate to and open the data spreadsheet
  4. Select the appropriate table in the text dialog box
    1. If necessary, select Edit Recipient List and de-select all unwanted data
  5. Select Finish and Merge
  6. Go to Send E-Mail Messages
  7. In the “Merge to E-mail” dialog box that comes up, verify that the “To:” field and the “Subject line” field show the correct fields. Then verify that the mail format is HTML.
  8. Click OK and now messages will start to be sent.
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