Mail Merge: E-mail with attachments

Writing a book, Automating Document Production - Discuss your special needs here
Post Reply
User avatar
kabing
Volunteer
Posts: 678
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2007 12:05 am
Location: Midwest, USA

Mail Merge: E-mail with attachments

Post by kabing »

I need to send out an e-mail with attachments to a number of individuals whose contact information is in a Base file, but not in my system address book. I've sent e-mails from Writer this way before, but never with attachments. Is this possible? I've checked the on-line help file, the OOo Guide and the Writer Guide, and don't find much.

If need be, I can copy the e-mail addresses from Base and paste them into my e-mail client, but if I could use Writer I could personalize the e-mails.

Thanks!

kabing
NeoOffice (app store version) OpenOffice.org 4.1 and LibreOffice 4.3 on Mac OS X El Capitan
OpenOffice.org 4.1.2 on Windows 10 (Previously on Vista)
hol.sten
Volunteer
Posts: 495
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:31 am
Location: Hamburg, Germany

Re: Mail Merge: E-mail with attachments

Post by hol.sten »

kabing wrote:I need to send out an e-mail with attachments to a number of individuals whose contact information is in a Base file, but not in my system address book.
What do you want to attach to the email? If you want to attach the OOo Writer document, you can do this with OOo Writer. If you want to attach another file, I don't think that it is possible with OOo Writer.
OOo 3.2.0 on Ubuntu 10.04 • OOo 3.2.1 on Windows 7 64-bit and MS Windows XP
User avatar
kabing
Volunteer
Posts: 678
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2007 12:05 am
Location: Midwest, USA

Re: Mail Merge: E-mail with attachments

Post by kabing »

They are .doc files; They are created in Wriiter, but I need to send them as .doc as the recipients don't have OpenOffice.org or NeoOffice.

kabing
NeoOffice (app store version) OpenOffice.org 4.1 and LibreOffice 4.3 on Mac OS X El Capitan
OpenOffice.org 4.1.2 on Windows 10 (Previously on Vista)
thomasjk
Volunteer
Posts: 4451
Joined: Tue Dec 25, 2007 4:52 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: Mail Merge: E-mail with attachments

Post by thomasjk »

With the document open click on the "Document as E-Mail" icon (small envelope) in the tool bar. This should open your email client and attach the document at the same time. I believe this icon is on the standard tool bar if not you may have to add it.
Tom K.
Windows 10 Home version 1803 17134.165
LibreOffice 5.4.7.2
hol.sten
Volunteer
Posts: 495
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:31 am
Location: Hamburg, Germany

Re: Mail Merge: E-mail with attachments

Post by hol.sten »

kabing wrote:They are .doc files; They are created in Wriiter, but I need to send them as .doc as the recipients don't have OpenOffice.org or NeoOffice.
Using the Mail Merge Wizard for sending Mails you can select to send your OOo Writer document as Microsoft Word Document. See the picture below. And you can assign a column of an OOo Base table to retrieve E-Mail addresses, and set an E-Mail subject.
Attachments
Step 8. of the Mail Merge Wizard offers to send a merged document as E-Mail attachment in MS Word document format.
Step 8. of the Mail Merge Wizard offers to send a merged document as E-Mail attachment in MS Word document format.
OOo 3.2.0 on Ubuntu 10.04 • OOo 3.2.1 on Windows 7 64-bit and MS Windows XP
User avatar
kabing
Volunteer
Posts: 678
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2007 12:05 am
Location: Midwest, USA

Re: Mail Merge: E-mail with attachments

Post by kabing »

This particular project got put on the back burner, so I'm only now getting back to this thread. Thank you for your suggestions.

I'm not sure that this quite gets me what I need, though. Let me spell it out more clearly:

I want to create a document personalized e-mail message (to send as html or plain text);
and to that e-mail I want to attach other .doc files that are not personalized.

I know how to do the first part. Where I'm stuck is attaching additional documents to the first e-mail message. I have a sneaking supsicion that this may not be possible.


kabing

edited to further clarify my intent.
NeoOffice (app store version) OpenOffice.org 4.1 and LibreOffice 4.3 on Mac OS X El Capitan
OpenOffice.org 4.1.2 on Windows 10 (Previously on Vista)
leeand00
Posts: 63
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2008 12:09 am

Re: Mail Merge: E-mail with attachments

Post by leeand00 »

I too have the same problem.

I'm sending out resumes...I need to send out a resume and a cover letter.

The cover letter should be in the form of an HTML formatted email,
and the attachment needs to be a Word-Document Resume.
leeand00
Posts: 63
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2008 12:09 am

Re: Mail Merge: E-mail with attachments

Post by leeand00 »

Also I just realized something,

Under the File->Send menu we have:
  • Document As Email
  • Email as OpenDocument Text
  • Email as MS Word
  • Email as PDF
  • etc...
Now as far as I can tell...shouldn't (send) "Document As Email" send it to your email client as a draft or an as of yet unsent letter rather than an attachment in a blank letter?

After all we already have another menu item named (send) "Email as OpenDocument Text" which as far as I can tell does exactly the same thing as (send) "Document As Email"

My guess would be that this has something to do with using a particular email client...which I do not possess.

But really, why is this?

Thank you,

Andrew J. Leer
User avatar
acknak
Moderator
Posts: 22756
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:25 am
Location: USA:NJ:E3

Re: Mail Merge: E-mail with attachments

Post by acknak »

That's not an unreasonable interpretation of the menu's wording, but it's not correct. All the File > Send options simply attach the current document to a blank email message. The only difference is the file format of the document that gets attached. It's also a one-off process; no merging from a list here.

As far as doing a merge that includes an attachment, I don't see any way to include an attachment.

The actual email driver is a python script (at least on Linux it is); it shouldn't be too hard to hack that to specify an attachment.
AOO4/LO5 • Linux • Fedora 23
leeand00
Posts: 63
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2008 12:09 am

Re: Mail Merge: E-mail with attachments

Post by leeand00 »

Okay so you can't do that, but is their a way to attach more than one attachment to the same email without digging through the harddirve to find it?
User avatar
acknak
Moderator
Posts: 22756
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:25 am
Location: USA:NJ:E3

Re: Mail Merge: E-mail with attachments

Post by acknak »

Well, if I start with composing a message in my email client, I can attach as many documents as I want to select in the file dialog, but if I start from OOo doing File > Send, then no, it's one at a time. There can only be one current document after all.
AOO4/LO5 • Linux • Fedora 23
Post Reply