(Persoanlized) Mail Merge Emails Without Outlook

March 5, 2007 8:28 PM

Is there a way I can send multiple emails personally addressed to the sendees without outlook? (preferably with os x)

I sometimes use Mail Merge with Outlook. It allows me to make an excel file with a column of emaill addresses and first names, and then sends an email to each address in the excel file and each email can be personalized and addresses to the person by name.

I am looking for a (preferably free) web-based or program-based way to do the same thing. Here are my options in order of what I would prefer:

1) A mac os x solution that does not require Apple's mail program and instead uses some other mail application, preferable gmail.

1.5) An mac os x solution that uses Apple's mail program.

2) A windows xp solution that uses gmail or some other non-outlook option.

Is there a firefox extension that does anything like this? I can make do with minimal functionality, with only a single field to personalize each email, although if there was a more robust option that would allow numerous fields to be added per email, that would be preferred.

I do not need this solution to maintain email lists or contacts.
Thanks.

posted by andoatnp to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Consider Campaign Monitor. We use it to send out our almost-monthly newsletter, Elbowruminations. There's no sign-up fee,it's free to send to the first five recipients, and costs only 5 cents for each subsequent letter. It can manage a mailing list, lets you do the input-personal-detail-automatically thing, and you don't need Outlook to send it. It's web based and will work on both Mac and PC. You can specify your gmail address as the "from" address, but it will send it using its own mail application. Check it out and see if it's what you're looking for.
posted by Milkman Dan at 8:49 PM on March 5, 2007

I've had luck searching VersionTracker.com for terms such as email, bulk, mailer, merge, etc.
posted by reeddavid at 11:28 PM on March 5, 2007

OpenOffice is a free cross-platform office suite, and can do mail merge. There's a Mac-specific version too.
posted by flabdablet at 3:25 AM on March 6, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

The best Mac app I've seen for this is MaxBulkMailer.
posted by Wild_Eep at 8:03 AM on March 6, 2007

Open a terminal and type "man mail". Command line 'mail' is nothing to do with the OSX Mail application. If you have your e-mail body in a file called 'email.txt', then you can send it to ADDRESS with SUBJECT, with the following command:

mail -s SUBJECT ADDRESS < email.txt
posted by mr. strange at 8:05 AM on March 6, 2007

flabdablet (or someone else knowledgeable): I'm new to the Mac life, and when my free trial of Office expired I downloaded OpenOffice, but I really disliked it and just yesterday downloaded NeoOffice, but I haven't used it yet.

Can NeoOffice do Mail Merge, and if so, does it have to do it through Apple's Mail program, or is there a way to get it to go through an online email program?
posted by andoatnp at 8:40 AM on March 6, 2007

I've never used NeoOffice, but you might find these links useful:

Using the Mail Merge Wizard - NeoWiki

Also, this question very similar to yours on the BMUG mailing list generated several suggestions, including this mail-merge plugin for Apple Mail, called SerialMail. I know nothing about it, but it might be worth a look.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:06 PM on March 6, 2007