How to add a pdf form to an email mail merge

As stated in https://wordribbon.tips.net/T009580_Attaching_Specific_Files_to_Mail-Merge_E-Mail_Messages.html, Word does not have a built-in way to add attachments to merged emails.

Without any add-in, the only reasonable solution is to store the PDF files on a file-sharing site such as OneDrive or DropBox or Google Drive, and place links to those files in the body of the email message.

If you can get permission to install an add-in, use the Merge Tools created by Microsoft MVP Doug Robbins. The page mentioned above includes a link to a video about it. You can download it from Doug's OneDrive at http://bit.ly/1hduSCB or a related version from Graham Mayor's page at https://www.gmayor.com/ManyToOne.htm.

Use the Merge with Attachments facility on my Merge Tools Add-in that is contained in the MERGE TOOLS ADD-IN.zip file that you can download from the following page of my One Drive:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmuIXmFDy-1ahDYSiUNl1pFAvGvI?e=srSq6A

Extract the files from the archive and read the:

“READ ME – Setting up and using the Merge Tools Add-in.pdf

to see how to install and use the various tools.

Using those tools, it is possible to perform the following types of merge that cannot be done with Mail Merge “out-of-the-box”:

• Merge to e-mail messages either with or without attachments, with the documents created by the merge being sent as either Word or PDF attachments or as the body of the e-mail message.

• Merge to individual documents in either Word or PDF format with the filenames being supplied by the data in one of the fields in the data source

• Many to One type merges, which can be used for creating documents such as invoices where there are multiple records in the data source that have common data in one of the fields

• Merging to a document that will include a chart that is unique to each record in the data source

• Merging a document with Content Controls

• Merging a document that contains Legacy FormFields

• Duplex Merges

• Merging to a printer that will collate and staple the output created from each record in the data source.

The requirements for using the system are:

• The mail merge main document must be of the Letters type, though that does not mean that the output cannot be sent as an e-mail message where relevant.

• For the Many To One, Merge with Attachments and Merge to Individual Docs utilities, the data source may be either a table or query in an Access database, or in the form of an Excel worksheet. For the Chart Merge utility, see the Mail Merging with Charts document that is included in the Merge Tools Add-in Zip file for additional requirements for the data source for use with that utility

• For a data source in the form of an Excel worksheet, the field names must be in the first row of the worksheet and there must be a field name in all of the cells in that row that are within the range of columns that contain the data.

• For both types of data source, the field names must contain only alphanumeric characters (No @,#,$,%,&,(,), etc) and the field names must not start with a numeric character (0-9). The number of characters in the field names, including spaces, must not be more than 40.

For a demonstration of the use of the facility, prepared by a Microsoft employee, see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj_s3cdfVDY

I always solved that by going offline first. The merged email messages will then end up in the Outbox, but will not be sent as you are still offline. Then open them one by one, and attach the file you want (invoices in my case) and hit send. They will still stay in the Outbox until you go online again. I think this is quicker than using the add-in mentioned below (which I also can't use as I use a Mac).

Unfortunately the new Outlook for Mac doesn't have the possibility to open mails that are in the Outbox. So since the new Outlook for Mac I have to switch back to the old version for some time just for this. Not a huge problem, but shouldn't be necessary. I already talked to Microsoft about this, but their reply was that this is intentional behaviour in the new Outlook 🤔