Showing posts with label attachments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attachments. Show all posts

10/24/2015

MS Office: How to Mail Merge Word to Outlook Emails with Different Attachments Using Excel

Can I do a mail merge in Microsoft Word with an attachment, and can the attachment be different for each email?

Yes! If you use a plug-in for Microsoft Word. Office cannot do this by default, but there are plug-ins that can. Below is one example.

To do a mail merge using Microsoft and attachments, you'll have to have 4 things:

1) MS Excel (or maybe Access) to provide rows of recipient names, emails, and attachment filenames.

2) MS Outlook to send the email's through your pre-configured SMTP account.

3) MS Word so you can make an email template, then merge the Excel rows to your attachment, and then send the emails out using Outlook.

4) A plug-in that will allow you to use one of the Excel rows' fields as the attachment.

The plug-in that I tried is called Mail Merge Toolkit and it can be found at MapiLab.com.

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Once you have all of those parts, and the Mail Merge Toolkit installed, you will need to set up your Excel to have a couple of new fields (columns).

You probably will have something like this for columns:

  • firstName
  • lastName
  • emailAddress
  • attachmentFilename
  • attachmentFolder
  • folderAndName
So, it depends on what you're trying to do, but you'll need to keep track of which file is going to whom, and where the file is located on your local computer system.

Perhaps the file is on your local C: drive or maybe it is on a Network drive.

Maybe you're sending only one file or a couple of different files.

Maybe all the files are in one folder, or maybe different folders.

Having 3 columns, like the last 3 above, allows you some flexibility for these situations.

You might want to apply [Format as Table] to your Excel rows, with the first row as headers.

I don't think it really matters what type of file is being attached for Mail Merge Toolkit to work. I tested it with different JPG files of my friends, and it worked fine.

So, a row might look like:
  • Jane
  • Doe
  • jdoe@workitmissthang.com
  • jane doe (2).jpg
  • C:\myPhotos\potentialClients\
  • =CONCATENATE([@attachmentPath],[@attachmentFilename])
The last entry is a formula that stitches together the other two attachment columns.

When you're done, close your Excel file.

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If you installed the Mail Merge Toolkit in Word, make sure you restart Word to see the new feature. There will be a menu on the [Mailings] tab for "Mail Merge Toolkit."
  • So, type up your form letter, save it. 
  • Choose [Mailings] > Select Recipients > Use an Existing List... 
  • Find your data source (Excel spreadsheet), and hit [OK].
  • Insert the placeholders where you want them (for firstName, lastName, address, business...) using 
  • [Mailings] > Insert Merge Field > {your choice of fields}.
  • You're going to leave alone the attachment fields, though.
  • Save your form letter again.
Now, test this out before you do a real mass mailing.
Okay, when you're ready to send your mail, you'll go to:
[Mailings] > Mail Merge Toolkit > Merge & Send.

You'll see a pop-up menu that looks like this:


See next to "Attach:"? That's where you'll select the field from you data source -- here it's called "folderAndName"

You can enter a Subject line with a customized string. 

Then, when you're ready, you hit [OK].

One more step. You will be asked to choose the account from which you would like to send. Again, this should have already been setup in Outlook, under Outlook > [File] > [Account Settings].

Good luck. Don't do it without running a test first.

2/04/2013

What size / How big is my Canon camcorder lens / filter

I own a Canon HF M41 (same as M40 and M400) and I like it a lot, but the zoom in and zoom out never quite seem adequate. I can never get as wide an image as I would like.

These types of shots can be improved with lenses that are screwed onto the front of the video camera.
But what size lens should you get?

Find your camcorder manual, and look for these words:
  • Lens
  • Converter
  • Filter diameter
  • mm
For the HF M41 Vixia/Legeria manual, I found on page 195, I found:
  • Filter Diameter: 43 mm.
Another clue to the size of your lens filters might be the name of the official accessories. For example:
Note the number "43" attached to the name, however, Canon's website is lax in that it doesn't state this specifically where it obviously should.

Comparison of wide angle lenses

I checked out a bunch of sites and video reviews for this post. They had good points about comparing cheap lenses to mid-range and expensive ones.

  • The cheap ones had several issues. 
  • Blurriness around the edges.
  • Vignetting (dark, circular shadows around the edge)
  • Visible edges of the lens in the corners
  • Bluriness when zooming in and out.
  • Unwanted fish-eye distortion.

Specifically, for my Canon HF M41, I'm looking at the company's own WD-H43 ($200+) or the Raynox 6600 (< $100). I could get a whole kit for $30 or $40 but we all know, you get what you pay for. So, I'd rather put the money toward a lens I'm going to actually use rather than on another cheapo gadget to experiment with.

The WD-H43 gets good reviews (especially for zoom), though users say it is large, heavy and expensive.
The best alternative that I've read about is the the Raynox 6600 which comes in different sizes. I'm not sure why, but some people say they have bought the 52 mm lens with a 43 mm converter instead of the 43 mm lens. I would guess that the 43 mm lens is best, but I haven't bought one yet to know. Perhaps the 52 mm lense fits other gear, too?
FYI -- Looking at video comparisons of the Raynox vs. the Canon WD-H43, I would say that the latter (more expensive lens) has better zoom quality, but the Raynox has less distortion when zoomed out, is less expensive, and weighs less, too.