Multi-select the exhibitors you want included in the mail merge, or, if necessary, set a filter to limit the list of visible exhibitors to those you want in the mail merge. You will be able to include selected or all visible (filtered) exhibitors in the mail merge.
3.
Click the Detail Options button to the right and select Mail Merge.
4.
The Exhibitor Mail Merge Wizard will open.
5.
First, select the data you want to merge: Selected Records or All. Here, “All” refers to all of exhibitors visible in the selection grid. Click Next.
Printer: Print the letters to paper or a PDF writer.
b.
Email: The main email address for the company contact you chose when adding the Exhibitor to the event.
c.
AlternateEmail (or Fax): The Exhibitor contact’s alternate email address. This can also be used for creating a fax mail merge. Some internet service providers can provide faxing capabilities or you may be able to configure your email server to send and receive faxes. Ensure that you entered the correct fax/email information in the Alt. Email field when creating your exhibitors.
d.
Document: Letters are saved in an RTF file, each letter starting on a new page. If you want to print the letters to PDF files, select Printer and choose your PDF writer.
2.
If you choose Email or Alternate Email, you can choose your Email Options. Select the radio button next to one of the options:
a.
Normal: This option sends one email per recipient. In other words, if the mail merge includes ten recipients, you will send out ten emails. This is the option you should choose if you are using Letter Templates with merge fields specific to each recipient, e.g. First Name, Last Name, Phone Number, etc.
b.
Group: This option sends one email to all recipients. In other words, if the mail merge includes ten recipients, you will send out one email to all ten email addresses. Do not use this option in you are using Letter Templates with merge fields specific to each recipient, e.g. First Name, Last Name, Phone Number, etc. If you select the Group option you have two other options to choose from:
i.
Use the "To" field when sending: This option will put all of the mail merge recipients' email addresses in the "To" field of the email, meaning that the recipients can see all of the other recipients' email addresses.
ii.
Use the "BCC" field when sending: This option will put all of the mail merge recipients' email addresses in the "BCC" field of the email, meaning each recipient will not be able to see the other recipients' email addresses.
Click on a template to see a preview of the letter at the bottom of the window. To learn how to setup Letter Templates, see Chapter 14: Letter and Label Templates, Create Letter Templates.
2.
Check the Selected box(es) next to the Letter(s) you want to send.
3.
To open the Word Processor window, click to highlight a template and click the Edit Letter button. Make any changes you require. To learn how to use the Word Processor, refer to Chapter 14: Letter and Label Templates, Word Processor. Close the Word Processor to return to the Mail Merge Wizard.
4.
If you chose Email or Alternate Email as the merge destination, and you choose a Letter Template here, the Letter will be sent as a PDF Attachment to the email.
5.
If you want the Letter to be in the body of the email, do not select any Letter Templates here. Later in the process, you will load the appropriate template into the body of the email. See Subject and Email Body Notes below.
6.
If you chose Printer or Document as the merge destination, the letters will be printed to paper, pdf or file (depending on the options you select).
Check the Update Communications box if you want to save a record of this mail merge communication in the Exhibitor’s Communications tab.
b.
Select a Method from the drop-down list and choose a DefaultReference for the documents sent in the mail merge.
c.
Selecting a Communication Method is particularly important if you have marked certain recipients as "Do Not Contact By" certain communication methods. For example, if you send an email mail merge and attempt to include a recipient you have marked to not contact by email, the recipient will not be sent the email.
d.
If you do not need to save a copy of the letter and/or body content of the communication, uncheck the Store Letter and/or Store Body/Notes boxes. You may have selected a default in the Mail Merge Settings of System Settings.
2.
Follow Up Action:
a.
If you want to create a Follow Up Action, check the box.
b.
From the Method drop-down list, choose whether you want to create One Action Per Recipient or One Action for All Recipients.
c.
If you select One Action per Recipient, EventPro Planner will create multiple actions (one action for every exhibitor in the mail merge) and attach each action to an exhibitor so that it appears in the exhibitor’s individual Actions tab, as well as the Event’s Actions tab and program Actions screen.
d.
If you select One Action for All Recipients, EventPro Planner will create only one action, which will appear in the Event’s Actions tab and the program Actions screen, but not in the individual exhibitors’ Actions tabs.
e.
Click the Edit Action button to enter the details of the Action. To learn how to create Actions, see Chapter 12: Actions.
3.
Select a Report:
a.
You can print or attach reports for each contact in the mail merge.
b.
Check the boxes next to the reports you want to include: Exhibitor Confirmation, Exhibitor Invoice and Exhibitor Receipt.
c.
For each report you include, you can choose the Report Template (there may only be one choice) and Reference (the Communication References you created in your General Lookup Tables) from the drop-down lists.
d.
Select a radio button to indicate the report attachment format you want to use: PDF, TIFF or RTF.
Enter a Subject for this communication. This will be the subject under which the communication is saved in the Exhibitor’s records. If you send the communication via email, this will also be the subject header of the email.
2.
If you want to add your personal signature to an email, click the Add Signature button. You can create a signature in your user profile under File | Email Settings.
3.
In the blank area, type in any notes you would like to record regarding this communication.
4.
If you chose Email or Alternate Email as the merge destination, any notes you enter in this space will become the body of the email message.
5.
If you want to send a Letter Template as the body content of an email, this is the place where you load the template (not the previous page where you had the option to check the Selected boxes). Click the LoadTemplate button/icon. Select the appropriate template in the Letter Templates dialog and click OK. The letter will appear in the notes field.
If you want to attach reports to the mail merge communication, click the Add Report button.
2.
In the Run Report dialog, select the report you want to attach and click OK.
3.
In the next dialog, you can choose the printing options for this report. To learn more about these report options, go to Chapter 18: Reports. After you have selected the options you want, click OK. The report will be added as a PDF attachment to the bottom of the window.
4.
To add another report, click the Add Report button again. Continue until you have attached as many reports as you require.
Click Finish. The Confirm box will appear, asking if you want to continue with the merge to your selected destination. Click Yes to continue.
a.
If you chose Printer as your merge destination, the Print window will appear. Select your Printer settings. Click OK.
b.
If you chose Document as your merge destination, the Save Merged Document To window will appear. Choose the folder where you want to save the file, type in a file name and click Save.
2.
The Merge Results screen will appear and will build the list of Exhibitors included in the mail merge. A checked Successful box indicates that the merge was successful.
3.
If the mail merge was not successful for an Exhibitor, the Successful checkbox will be unchecked and there will be an explanatory Error Message.
4.
If you have marked certain recipients as Do Not Contact By the communication method used in this mail merge, the recipient will be excluded from the mail merge and the Error Message will indicate that the contact "Does not wish to be contacted by this method".
5.
To print the Mail Merge results, click the Print button in the bottom left corner.
a.
In the Mail Merge Results window, enter a Report Title if you want something different from the default.
b.
Under Options, use the drop-down list to choose whether you want to view Successful, Unsuccessful or both results.
c.
Choose the Report Shading you want in the report.
d.
Click OK.
e.
In the Print dialog, choose your destination and print settings and click OK. For more information about printing reports, refer to Chapter 18: Reports, Print Reports.
6.
Click Close when you are done viewing and/or printing the mail merge results.
