Using contacts from an excel file or similar

I have changed from OE to using windows live mail (but still using XP). I
have a database in excel with email addresses for a group I look after.
When emailing a subset of the group, the easiest thing is to filter the
group and then cut and paste the email addresses into the email. This
worked fine in OE - indeed if the format

NAME<email address>,
NAME2<email address2>,
etc

was used then OE converted the emails to look like email addresses of NAME,
NAME2 etc.

WLM does not appear to do that and sometimes there are errors for no reason
I can fathom where email addresses are missed out. For example if a name
appears twice in the list then sometimes both entries are removed or neither
whereas OE used to leave one.

Has anyone found a better way of emailing groups from a database please.


--

I played around with this a little bit and it seems that WLM is
comparing to its contacts. And what ends up in the final message is
just the name if it doesn't find a match.

I found a workaround that seems to work. You might try it and see if it
works for you. Let us know.

Take you list and paste into notepad.

NAME<email address>,
NAME2<email address2>,

Then edit it to say

From: NAME<email address>,
NAME2<email address2>,

Save as an EML file (e.g. EMAIL-LIST.EML

Then double click the EML file. It should open in a message reading
window with the your list in the FROM: box.

Click Reply All and you should get a message composition window with the
list in the TO box.

--

Mike - http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_santovec/techhelp.htm



"Broooz" <Broooz@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uHwBvM1uIHA.4952@xxxxxx

Thinking about this some more, you probably want to use BCC, so what I
suggested wouldn't work. But there's a better way.

Using the same basic procedure, paste your list into Notepad. Then edit
it to say:

x-unsent: 1
BCC: NAME<email address>,
NAME2<email address2>,
NAME3<email address3>, etc.

Save as an EML file (e.g. EMAIL-LIST.EML)

Then double click the EML file. It should open in a message composition
window with the your list in the BCC: box.

Complete the message as desired and send.

--

Mike - http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_santovec/techhelp.htm



"Michael Santovec" <michael_santovec@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uqznKv8uIHA.1240@xxxxxx

Is there any particular reason for maintaining this database in
Excel? Could it not just as well be managed in WLMail?
* You have 29 data fields available, all of them text fields that
could easily be used for something else although you can't rename
them. One of them could be a unique index (membership number?).
* One of these is a copious 'Notes' field.
* You could keep them separate from your other WLMail contacts by
associating them with a different Live ID. This could also provide
an independent backup in case of computer breakdown.
* You could arrange them in groups or select a subset for mailings.
* You could display and sort them by a wide variety of criteria.
* You could export an up-to-date version to CSV for other purposes,
like mail merge, or to allow you to perform whatever other actions
you currently use the Excel database for.

Just a few thoughts...
--
Noel

"Broooz" <Broooz@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uHwBvM1uIHA.4952@xxxxxx

"Ildhund" <jnllb@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OzL4LM#uIHA.1504@xxxxxx Thanks Noel - yes I maintain a database for the group for other purposes as
well. It takes more time to maintain effectively 2 databases which is why I
wanted a simple way of passing data between the 2 applications. Given MS
makes them both, I expected compatibility

Bruce

"Michael Santovec" <michael_santovec@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uBgmRc9uIHA.4260@xxxxxx Thanks Mike - that looks more promising - thank you very much for taking the
trouble. I will try it at the weekend.

Regards

Bruce

A couple of further notes on this:

x-unsent: 1
BCC: NAME<email address>,
NAME2<email address2>,
NAME3<email address3>, etc.

You are building a mail message skeleton and need to follow the rules
for this.

When you continue a header, as the BCC, the continuation lines must
start with white-space (one or more blanks and/or tabs). Without that
they are taken as a new header.

You can use either 1 or 2 with the x-unsent: header. With 1 it will
open as a plain text format message, with 2 as an HTML format message.

--

Mike - http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_santovec/techhelp.htm



"Broooz" <Broooz@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OAfRW3FvIHA.4560@xxxxxx