Problem with Mail Merge, Word 2010, and Attachments

[heathertank]

Hi All,

I have Word 2010 installed on my computer. One of my responsibilities has always been an e-mail merge and instead of HTML, we send the Word document as an attachment. For reasons I won't bother boring you with, it is important that what we send is an attachment, not embedded into the body of the email message in HTML. This has always been done in the past (e.g. from Word 2007) by creating the doc in Word (this would be the doc that would show as a file attachment in the emails), going through the steps to merge it with the data source, insert fields, etc., then on the Mailings tab going to Finish & Merge and selecting Send Email Messages. From here I would select the Mail Format of Attachment (not HTML) and off it would go. I needed to click an "Allow" button two times for each message it would send (or maybe it was a "yes" button to allow?), but it worked just fine.

I have done this for years in 2003 and also 2007. Now I have Word 2010 installed and it doesn't work. When I follow through the process, it makes it look like the program is sending (I have to click the "allow" button, but only once...), but when I look in my Sent folder (I use Outlook 2010), the message is not there. Nor is it in my Outbox. It's like it just disappears. It definitely does not send, as I am testing this and nobody is getting any of the test docs I'm sending.

I'm thinking there must be some security settings that changed in this version that is keeping this from working, but I can't seem to find where that setting is. Does anyone have some suggestions of where to look??

BTW, I am fully aware that there are add-on packages to help with this, but it has never been needed before. I really believe there must be some kind of setting (could it e in Windows 7? Office 2010?) that is different on this computer that is keeping this from working properly. I should also add that this is a brand new laptop with Office/Outlook 2010 and Win 7. This was NOT an upgrade. Everything is a fresh install.

Thanks,
Heather

[HansV]

Welcome to Eileen's Lounge!

Apparently, there is a hotfix fot this problem: Mail merge in Microsoft Word does not work on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.

[heathertank]

Brilliant. Thank you Hans - so much! I'll look into this today. I posted this problem onto three sites and it appears that you have given me the missing link I was searching for!

Thanks again!!
Heather

[stuck]

I posted this problem onto three sites

I hope you remembered to post back on the other sites that you found the solution.

Ken

[Reimer]

And that you got the information from this site...

[Jim]

I’m having a similar problem. I’m using Windows 7 and Office suite professional 2010. I can no longer merge emails to send to multiple persons list in an Excel spreadsheet. I select email merge and send and nothing happens.

[Jim]

FYI -- just found the fix on another board. On the control panel, select programs and features. Then select (in my case) MS Office Professional Plus, select change, then repair. Let it brew, reboot and I'm in business.

[Leif]

Thanks for posting back!

[heathertank]

I'll look into this myself - thank you SO much for posting! I still struggle with this. Thanks!

[Reimer]

Heather,

If a suggestion does not work, Post back and let them know. They Try VERY hard to solve problems.
By the way, I enjoyed your class the other day.

[heathertank]

Thanks Chuck - I'll look into this weekend when I'm on my 2010 machine. (Teaching 2003 today - can you believe it?!) Glad you enjoyed our session - I had fun there, too! ~Heather

[heathertank]

The above fix from Jim didn't work for me, but this link has finally given me the fix I needed. Thanks all....

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980681/en-us" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

~Heather

[nebbia]

I am having the same problem but have not been able to resolve this issue. The issue effects only emails and in particular HTML merges. Plain text merges work though I must allow permission for each individual recipient which is unacceptable as well. l have taken these steps.
1.remove and re-install office 2010 (clean install)
2.applied hotfix 980681, rebooted and repaired office
3.safe mode for word and windows 7
4.different user accounts
5.disabled all virus, spyware, firewall protection

Any suggestions would be appreciated

[HansV]

Hello nebbia,

A belated welcome to Eileen's Lounge!

I don't have a solution for your problem with HTML e-mails, but I can suggest one for the permission problem: A program is trying to send e-mail on your behalf. Stop this message with ClickYes.

[nebbia]

Thanks for the help I wish I could resolve the other issue. I'll continue to try

[HansV]

I wish I could help, but the hotfix and repairing the Office installation are the only proposed solutions that I can find and you've already tried those.

You could try creating a new mail profile in the Mail control panel. This sometimes helps to get rid of obscure problems in Outlook.

[nebbia]

I have found a solution that works for me. I disabled all the add-ins in Word. The merge now worked with HTML messages. Adding them back one at a time I found that the culprit was Google Desktop Office Addin. I have had no further problems since it was not loaded

[HansV]

Thanks for sharing the solution!