Small Business

Outlook Tip: Send Personalized E-Mail to Multiple Contacts

By Rick Broida

Updated on: September 23, 2008 / 12:00 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

Ever wish you could send out a form letter that looks like a personal letter? The team over at Microsoft's Outlook Team Blog shows you how, using Outlook's "hidden" mail-merge feature. The basic steps break down like this:

Select your contacts in Outlook
Select to send an e-mail in the Mail Merge dialog and choose your subject
Compose your e-mail in Word â€" inserting fields where appropriate
Preview and Send

So, obviously this process requires Word, as it actually leverages Word's mail-merge capabilities. The author notes that you can't use this feature with Outlook's personal distribution lists, which is a bummer, but otherwise it's a great way to mass-mail a bunch of contacts without looking like you're mass-mailing a bunch of contacts.

The overall process is a bit lengthy and complex, and it focuses on the 2007 versions of Outlook and Word -- but I was able to get the job done in my 2003 versions. [via Lifehacker Australia]