Using Mail Merge for Lotus Notes Email Author: Gavin Bollard, 19 May 2011 Reviewed: David Turner, 29 Sept 2011, for release 1.2

Contents Part 1: Getting the Files Part 2: Installation Part 3: Creating the Merge Part 4: Sending the Merge Files

Part 1: Getting the Files Go to OpenNTF (http://www.openntf.org/) Look for a project called; MailMerge Excel to Notes Click on Releases Download the latest ZIP File Extract it.

Part 2: Installation This needs to be done by someone with the IBM Domino Designer application. For test purposes, apply it on a single mail database file. Once tested, you should probably do it on your mail file master template for easy distribution.

Copy Agents from Project File In Designer, open the MailMerge.nsf database included in the ZIP File. On the Left Hand Navigator, expand Code Double-Click on Agents to see the three Mail Merge agents: Mail Merge\Create Mail Merge Mail Merge\Send Mail Merge Mail Merge\Send Selected Mail Merge Copy the agents.

Paste Agents in Mail File Open your Mail file or template (7.x or 8.x compatible). On the Left Hand Navigator, expand Code Paste the agents onto the Agent node.

Copy agents from MailMerge database Paste into your mail database

Part 3: Creating the Merge To do a merge, you’ll need; An Excel spreadsheet containing merge data. A Lotus Notes email in draft mode.

Creating the Spreadsheet Start Excel and create some columns. To – SendTo email address Cc – CopyTo email address Bcc – BlindCopyTo email address Subject – Email Subject Attachments – Filenames to attach to the email One of the address fields must be provided. Attachment files must exist. A list can be pipe-separated (|), and it supports wildcards (*). And add any extra columns you want. Any headers and data may be formula-based. Save your spreadsheet.

Creating the Email In Lotus Notes, create a new Mail Memo Leave the Address Details blank but you can put a subject in (it will get overwritten anyway). In the email body, type some text in uppercase and square brackets (e.g. [SURNAME]) whenever you want to reference a field in your spreadsheet. When finished, click Save as Draft.

Creating the Merged Emails Open your drafts folder and select (click on without opening) your new email. From the Notes Menu, select; Actions, Mail Merge, Create Mail Merge

Click Ok If you missed fields, you’ll get a warning. Otherwise you’ll just get a message. In both cases, Note the ID Number and click Ok.

Click Ok Again The mail merge operation will then go and create draft emails. When it has finished, it will tell you how many it created and remind you of the ID number. Note that drafting lots of emails could take a while so test on a small number first. Click Ok to continue.

View Your Drafts Your drafts should appear in the drafts folder. You can view, edit and delete them just like normal email.

Check an Email or Two Be sure to do a few checks before sending your emails. You’ll see that your fields have been filled in.

Check an Email or Two Be sure to do a few checks before sending your emails. You’ll see that your fields have been filled in.

Part 4: Sending the Merge Files You don’t actually have to do this part. You can send your drafts individually, just like normal emails. But it’s easier to send in bulk. You can choose to either: A: send all drafts, or B: only selected drafts.

A: Send All Process From the Notes Menu, select, Actions, Mail Merge, Send Mail Merge.

B: Send Selected Process In your Drafts folder, select the mails you want to send (or you can select all). Drafts which don’t contain the merge ID won’t be sent. From the Notes Menu, select, Actions, Mail Merge, Send Selected Mail Merge.

Enter ID The merge will prompt you for the ID number you wrote down earlier. Usually it guesses it right based on your selection or the previously created batch.

Click Ok The last warning screen will be displayed telling you how many emails it found with the Batch ID you used. If this is ok, click Ok.

Wait for Confirmation The time taken will vary depending on how many emails you sent. At the end of the process, you’ll be told how many were sent and how many errors were received. Click ok when done.

What it Looks Like It just looks like a normal email. Here’s my Gmail test.

The End And a big thank you to For developing such a great utility. David Turner Sacha Chua For developing such a great utility.