Emailed Program Announcement Primer  

I, Alan Zuckerman, used Microsoft Outlook (the version on my workroom PC, not the one on Passport) to create a new contacts list, into which I entered all of the people requesting the email program announcements.

1. Open Microsoft Outlook.  At the very bottom left you'll see a row of little icons.  Find the one for "Contacts" and click on it.
2. At the top left where it says "New" with a little downward pointing triangle next to it, click on that triangle.
3. In the menu that appears, click on "Folder."Make sure the folder is a subfolder of "Contacts"
4. Name the folder in the box provided, then click on "okay."
5.  In the top left of the screen you'll see "My contacts."  Under that is the new folder you've created.  Click on the new folder.
6. Click on "New" in the top left of the screen.  A window will come up in which you can add a name, phone number and email address for one recipient.  Fill those things in and click "save and close."
7. Click "New" and repeat for each recipient.

Once I got that established, I opened up a new Word file, typed in the announcement (with no graphics so that everyone can read it, regardless of email program), and used Word's mailmerge feature (click on "Tools" then "Letters & Mailings" then "Mail Merge") to set up the document and send it out to that contact list. Mailmerge has a wizard to guide you through the process via a task pane that pops up on the right-hand side.

1. First click on "email messages" under document type. Then click "Next."

2. Then "Select Starting Document." If you've already typed up your announcement in the document that's open, use that. If you've already typed and saved a document, use that. Finally, if you're able to create a kind of template that you can call up and fill in (I didn't do this, since it was a little different each time), then choose the third option.

3. Then click on "Next: Select Recipients"

4. Click on "Select from Outlook contacts." Then click on "choose contacts folder." With a little luck, you'll see the contacts list you created and named. Select it. A list of all the contacts within that contacts list will pop up, with all names checked off. Here you have options. If this is your main distribution, you can just accept the entire list. If you're just sending to one or two new sign-ups, you can uncheck all, then check only those two. Then accept the list you want.

5. Here they instruct you to write your letter. This involves inserting placeholders for names, email addresses, or whatever you've included for each of your contacts. (I just used name, phone number, and email address). You could easily leave all of this out. Just start your document with something like Dear Library Customer or something like that. However, you could also do a memo format with TO: From: Date: Subject: etc. This is a little more complicated, but not impossible. The idea is, if you put a place-holder for name, for example, the mailmerge will place the appropriate name in each copy of the email for each recipient.

6. Next you get a chance to preview one or more of the actual individual emails. In my case, they're all exactly the same, so I don't bother, though I did at first to make sure it was going to look like I wanted it to.

7. I believe that when you start the mailmerge wizard, a special toolbar pops up above the white space where the announcement is typed. On it is a little icon, second from the right, with a picture of yellow-ish envelope. Click on that and a window pops up. The window shows that each email will include the recipient's email address, a subject line (which you fill in at this point, e.g., "July program announcement"), and a mail format (which you can ignore). Click "okay" and the emails get sent. Just like that.

8. I typically call up the previous month's email announcement to create the next month's, because there's some boiler plate about how to register, phone number, disclaimer about handicapped, directions, whatever you want. HOWEVER, BE Careful, because at the last step when you fill in the email subject in the little popup window, the subject from the previous month will still be there (e.g., Norrisville Branch JUNE Programs). You have to change it to what you want it to say for the current email (e.g., Norrisville Branch JULY Programs). Perhaps that's the value of doing this with a template.

I hope this helps, but call or email with further questions: 410-692-0506 or zuckermana@hcplonline.info