I’m trying to send out a mass email (to about 120 recipients). I would like to individualize the letters by merging certain information from a Numbers file onto a Pages document, then emailing it to all with a click of a button. I’ve learned how to merge the documents, but I can’t figure out how to send them as an attachment to an email and to send them all at once with just 1 click. I used to do this on Word, and now I have a Mac.
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How Do I Use the Merge/mail Feature for a Mass E-mail?
Comments: 5 Responses to “How Do I Use the Merge/mail Feature for a Mass E-mail?”
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You don't. The "merge" feature in Pages and other word processors is strictly for physical printouts. There would be several problems involved with using a similar feature for email.
Mainly, sending out bulk email using personal email software is not a good idea. Now you are looking at a small number (120), but most people asking this question would be thinking more.
At some point the number is high enough that sending out an email from one person on one computer to many people looks like bulk email and could be considered spam. Your ISP may notice this and you can get into trouble there. And email servers around the Internet may notice it and you could potentially get blacklisted.
The proper way to send out mass emails like this is to use a service (like Aweber) that is specially designed to handle mass mailings. You'd be able to send customize HTML emails to many people, for instance. Though I don't think any of those services would support custom file attachments like Pages or PDF documents.
I suppose one solution would be to print your merge to a PDF. You would get a single PDF with all of the pages in it. So then you would have to separate them into individual documents and then mail each one.
So I think you'll need to go back to looking at what you are trying to accomplish, and see if there is an alternative way to accomplishing it. I don't know what these documents contain, so I can't help much beyond this.
My Pages document has a Name, Address, Dear Mr. & Mrs (Last Name), Please remit your payment of $____. The Numbers document has all the info (name, address, $ due, email addresses. How email the individualized merged files with just a click of a button. In Word, I would click “merge” and it would merge the files and automatically send them out as an attachment to the different email addresses.
RE
Interesting. I wonder if that is a feature of older versions of Word, and not in the current versions? If it is in the current version, then you could just use Word instead of Pages.
But I would't be surprised if it isn't in there as I can see it being easily abused, or resulting in people have their email accounts shut down without them realizing they are doing something wrong.
The Numbers document is something I've created myself. I wrote down names of registrants, mailing and email addresses, contact info, and balance due. So it's not something that can be abused. Then I can quickly send an email with an attachment letter reminding them how much they owe. It sure is disappointing that Pages doesn't have this feature. I guess I'll have to go back to Word.
It isn't about whether YOU can abuse it. It is whether anyone can abuse it. If you can send email to 120 people with one click, when why can't someone else do it? To 1,200 people. To 12,000. How about to 12 million? The point is that ISPs are not going to let you send email to 12 million people. So where is the cut-off? 1,000? 10,000? Don't know. Depends on your ISP and their policies and in-place procedures. That's what I mean.