Forum Discussion
Mass email with individualized QR codes embedded
I want to send out approx. 10k emails, each including an individualized QR code.
When I send the serial letters, however, they all contain the same QR code. I know that the documents must be opened in "edit individually" mode to actualize the fields (F9) and then you get back the individual QR codes. But this step also opens another document which can no longer be passed through the mailings procedure.
How do I work around this?
Jesse_R_Baechler With a suitable Mail Merge Main Document, my MergeTools Add-in will create and send each of the email messages with teh unique QR code in each one.
My Merge Tools Add-in is contained in the MERGE TOOLS ADD-IN.zip file that you can download from:
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 . The email messages can, if necessary, also be sent to CC and BCC addresses and the subject of the message can include data from a field in the data source.
- 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.
The MergeTools Add-in will NOT work with the “New Outlook”, which is just a re-badged version of Windows Mail and like its predecessor, it does not support automation and hence will not send the messages created by the MergeTools Add-in.
Be aware, that any messages that you had tried to send with the “New Outlook” will have been placed in the Outbox of the original Outlook and they will be sent as soon as you revert to that version of Outlook. If you do not want that to happen, you should put Outlook Off-line, or disconnect your computer from the Internet.
- Jesse_R_BaechlerCopper Contributor
Doug_Robbins_Word_MVP Thanks a ton! I downloaded and installed it and went to work, but I got an error message regarding the array. At this point, I was already in way too deep water and couldn't figure out the solution. The DisplayBarcode command seemed to work at first, but the QR code is missing in the emails.
Jesse_R_Baechler Contact me at the email address in the instructions.
- Charles_KenyonBronze ContributorAre you using the DisplayBarCode or MergeBarCode fields?
- Jesse_R_BaechlerCopper ContributorThanks so much, Charles_Kenyon! The DisplayBarCode command does give my back the correct bar code while I work in MS Word. Once I sent out the emails, however, the QR code disappears. Have you heard of this happening?
- Charles_KenyonBronze Contributor
Sorry, I do not have enough experience with using Word to send emails to answer.
Merging to email messages is not simple, thus Doug's Add-In.What is the mergefield producing the BarCode?
Some thoughts:
Work with a small sample database and experiment.
How are you sending the emails? Which version of Word?Here are some YouTube videos that may assist.