Excel help needed, ASAP - please

Factual Questions
1

We received a text file that included names and addresses and email addresses. I was able to seperate out the email addresses and can have them in both a text file and an excel spreadsheet. How can I send a mass email with these addresses? I don’t know if a simple cut and paste will work, or if it would work if there were a comma or a semi colon after each address.

Please help.

2

It really depends on the mass mailer program you’re using. Nearly all that I have tried can easily import a list of emails, seperated by a ; (.csv file) or a space or CR (return).

Actually, most will import a list of emails even if there is other date in the file, for example, a username or address. This way you can send a mail to all the addresses but include something personal in each mail such as…
Hello Peter or Hello Mary, etc…
Do you have a program to send mass emails?

3

If they are all in a single column, you could probably do something like:

Make a copy of the worksheet and work on the copy
Delete all the columns except the one with the addresses
Select the email addresses (not the entire column, just the full cells)
Click copy
Select Cell B1
Click Edit>Paste Special>Transpose
Delete column A
Save the sheet as CSV
Open in Wordpad and replace commas with a semicolon and a space.

There’s got to be an easier method.

4

Actually, it wouldn’t be using a special mass mailer program. It would go though either Outlook or Netscape.

5

Following is a simple overview of how to do this. I would warn you to test it with your own email addresses as there is very little warning when it is actually going to send the messages!

  1. Save the whole excel spreadsheet as a csv (MS-DOS).
  2. In outlook you need to create a new contacts folder with a name such as mailmerge.
  3. Go to File->Import and Export and then select Import from another program or file.
  4. Select Comma Seperated Values (Windows) then browse to the csv you previously saved.
  5. Select the new contacts folder that you created.
  6. Check the box next to the only option on the list and then drag any fields that you want to import onto appropriate MS Outlook contacts field. Important ones are name (if you have them) onto Name and the email address on to E-Mail.
  7. Click ok and then Finish and you should now have your list of desired recipients in a seperate contacts folder in outlook.

Next job is to do a mail merge using MS Word!

  1. Select the new contacts folder in outlook and click on Tools->Mail Merge
  2. Accept the default options and word should open. If the paperclip asks you just say you want to edit the document.
  3. Type your message in the word window. If you type "Dear " then click ‘Insert Merge Field’ then select name (for instance) it will place the name of each contact at this point in the message. You can do that with as many fields as you wish.
  4. Once you have finished typing your document click the Merge button.
  5. Change the ‘Merge To:’ dropdown to be ‘Electronic Mail’ and then click the setup button.
  6. Select the E-Mail field and add a subject, click ok.
  7. WARNING: When you click merge it will actually send the emails using outlook.

This should do exactly what you want but I would play about with it a bit first as mass mailing is an easy way to piss of lots of customers (or potential customers) especially if you get it wrong. Bear in mind what happens if you only have fields of data for certain contacts and not other as this can look very unprofessional.
I severly hope that you are not using this for spamming purposes!
If you’ve got any specific questions I will try to help but am going home in an hour and wont be back online until tomorrow.

Fez.

6

Following is a simple overview of how to do this. I would warn you to test it with your own email addresses as there is very little warning when it is actually going to send the messages!

  1. Save the whole excel spreadsheet as a csv (MS-DOS).
  2. In outlook you need to create a new contacts folder with a name such as mailmerge.
  3. Go to File->Import and Export and then select Import from another program or file.
  4. Select Comma Seperated Values (Windows) then browse to the csv you previously saved.
  5. Select the new contacts folder that you created.
  6. Check the box next to the only option on the list and then drag any fields that you want to import onto appropriate MS Outlook contacts field. Important ones are name (if you have them) onto Name and the email address on to E-Mail.
  7. Click ok and then Finish and you should now have your list of desired recipients in a seperate contacts folder in outlook.

Next job is to do a mail merge using MS Word!

  1. Select the new contacts folder in outlook and click on Tools->Mail Merge
  2. Accept the default options and word should open. If the paperclip asks you just say you want to edit the document.
  3. Type your message in the word window. If you type "Dear " then click ‘Insert Merge Field’ then select name (for instance) it will place the name of each contact at this point in the message. You can do that with as many fields as you wish.
  4. Once you have finished typing your document click the Merge button.
  5. Change the ‘Merge To:’ dropdown to be ‘Electronic Mail’ and then click the setup button.
  6. Select the E-Mail field and add a subject, click ok.
  7. WARNING: When you click merge it will actually send the emails using outlook.

This should do exactly what you want but I would play about with it a bit first as mass mailing is an easy way to piss of lots of customers (or potential customers) especially if you get it wrong. Bear in mind what happens if you only have fields of data for certain contacts and not other as this can look very unprofessional.
I severly hope that you are not using this for spamming purposes!
If you’ve got any specific questions I will try to help but am going home in a bit and wont be back online until tomorrow.

Fez.

7

Excel won’t let me paste all the addresses into one cell. I get a message that says it won’t fit and to just copy one cell, or have a cell that is the same size as the item copied. I can’t do that because we are talking about 10,000 lines. I tried doing it with just 30 lines and when I did the special paste, it put each address into different cells (all on the same line).

8

Another approach:

Open the text file.
Copy the entire lot of email addresses and paste into a blank Word file.
CTRL+H (find and replace)
Put the cursor in the first box.
Hit the “More” button, then the “Special” button, then choose “Paragraph mark”.
In the second box type a semicolon.
Hit “Replace all”.
When this has finished, select all and copy the entire thing.
Paste into the requisite address box (BCC mucho advisable) in Outlook.

9

All you need to do is go into Outlook and go File>Import and Export and choose Import from another program or file and follow the directions. I don’t have the function installed so can’t take you any further but this will add the entries to your Outlook contact list so they can be chosen as addressees.

10

While it is a custer flark to do, the method put forward by Fez does work. Don’t worry it isn’t for spam, at least not in the traditional sense, they are addresses that we do have premission to email, we just got the addresses in a bad format.

Thanks Fez. I have been reminded of an old Life is Hell strip where Akbar says to Jeff (or was it Jeff to Akbar?), “Nice Fez”.