Change Template Recipient Automatically - Outlook 2007

[walu22]

Hello,

I have an Outlook distribution list of ~50 clients, each of whom needs to be emailed a personal Excel report once a week. I want to produce a macro that would loop through the distribution list, pull the individual email addresses, and apply each address to its own template. The template has a subject line and message (that's the same for everyone) while the new attachment is added manually. In other words, after running the macro, I’d like to see 50 separate drafts, one for each client in the list, with a different email address in each “to” field. Can you fine folks help me out? I have no clue how to write VBA code myself, I just copy, paste, and pray, using stuff I find online. If a macro wouldn't be the best solution, is there another way I could do this?



Cheers,

walu22

P.S. Through searching around online, including stuff posted on this site, I've found the following:

Public Sub InsertSubject()

Dim olkMsg As Outlook.MailItem

Set olkMsg = Application.CreateItem(olMailItem)

olkMsg.Subject = "Client Statement"

olkMsg.Display

olkMsg.To = "*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

Set olkMsg = Nothing

End Sub

Could some sort of loop be added to olkMsg.To in this bad boy?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Will the excel file names change week to week? if not, you can automate everything.

You sample macro will create 1 message - you need to loop through the dl to get each address - see http://www.slipstick.com/developer/mail-merge-members-contact-group/

 

[walu22]

Will the excel file names change week to week? if not, you can automate everything.

You sample macro will create 1 message - you need to loop through the dl to get each address - see http://www.slipstick.com/developer/mail-merge-members-contact-group/

The excel file name does change, but I guess it doesn't have to. We currently do it so that each file name includes the date for the week end (i.e. the report is sent out on Monday, contains data from the previous week, and is dated as per this example: Client Statement - Week End October 18, 2013). How would I go about automating everything?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

If the name is consistent and something VBA can be made to "figure out", it shouldn't be a problem - dates and date calculations are something vba can handle. Is the clients name in the filename or folder path? You need a way to identify and link the person, the email address, and the file. If you generate the files one at a time, you could generate and send in one step. (Yeah, lots of options. )

 

[walu22]

Will the excel file names change week to week? if not, you can automate everything.

You sample macro will create 1 message - you need to loop through the dl to get each address - see http://www.slipstick.com/developer/mail-merge-members-contact-group/

I just followed your instructions, Diane, and the code worked perfectly. This is exactly what I'm looking for! If you're ever in Winnipeg, lunch's on me.

I am still interested in automating the entire process, but this is a fantastic start.

Thank you,

walu22

 

[walu22]

If the name is consistent and something VBA can be made to "figure out", it shouldn't be a problem - dates and date calculations are something vba can handle. Is the clients name in the filename or folder path? You need a way to identify and link the person, the email address, and the file. If you generate the files one at a time, you could generate and send in one step. (Yeah, lots of options.

)

Hey Diane,

Apologies for replying so late! Work's gotten crazy, but the mail merge is drawing oohs and ahs from my coworkers! Would saving the files in the same order as the names in distribution list work? In other words, a way to ask VBA to pull the first name in the list and the first file in a folder, which will be matched due to the order in which I save the files?

As per your request, here's the actual format of the files:

The main reports are in the following location:

Individual Reports -> Year (i.e 2013) -> Week (i.e 42. Oct 21-25) -> Statements -> File Name (i.e. LastName_Earned_2013_10_25)

Meanwhile, the quarterly reports are in the following location:

Individual Reports -> Year (i.e 2013) -> Week (i.e 42. Oct 21-25) -> Deferred -> Statements -> File Name (i.e LastName_Deferred_2013_10_18)

The last name in the file name matches the first name listed in the distribution list (i.e. Doe, John in my "to field" verses Doe_Earned_2013_10_25)

With regards to your final point, the reports are all generated first, saved on our shared drive, and reviewed, before the client emails are sent out. So generating and sending in one step won't really work for me.

Happy Halloween,

Colin