Outlook mail merge attachment (OMMA)Troubleshooting
Outlook Mail Merge Attachment supplies mail merge process in Microsoft Office Word and Outlook with the functionality to add an attachment.
How the script works
The script should be works as follows. First, you set Microsoft Outlook to work offline, this way the emails are stored in the Outbox but not actually send. Then you perform the mail merge using Microsoft Word as you are used to. All merged emails are now stored in the Outlook Outbox. Then you run the script, 'outlook mail merge attachment.vbs', which adds an attachment to all emails in the Outbox. To send you emails, you simply set Outlook to work Online again.
The scipt works as follows. After attaching the file to the email in the outbox, it opens the emails one by one and types ALT+S, which is the keystroke to send an email. A error will occur when the OMMA script is not able to open the emails in the outbox and to activate (give focus to) the window with the email.
Outlook configuration
- Outlook must be configured such that no messages pop-up when one presses the "Send" button in the Outlook email message window.
- OMMA does not work when the spell-check is configured to give a pop-up message before sending an email.
- For Outlook 2003, OMMA is known to fail when MS Word is set as email editor, instead of Outlook's internal editor.
Known issues, just double-check
- Was outlook open when running OMMA? (It should be open)
- Sometimes, the "Attach file" dialog is hidden behind another window. Please minimize all windows when OMMA seems to stop right after the welcome message.
- OMMA runs on Microsoft Windows and not on a Mac.
- OMMA takes a 5 seconds break after each 50 emails. This is necessary for some systems.
- Is it possible that you have another window open which prevents the script from opening the email?
- Please close all other software before running OMMA. Other software might change focus to their window, which will cause OMMA to fail sending keystrokes to the email window.
- If you want to attach more than one attachment, you can select multiple files in the "Attach file" dialor, or just run OMMA (double click Outlook Mail Merge Attachment.vbs) multiple times.
- Are you sure that you did not touch the keyboard or the mouse while using OMMA?
The ALT+S Test
Please check whether the ALT+S key-combination sends the email in your configuration.- Open an email message in Outlook
- Type simultaneously ALT and S
If the ALT+S keystroke does not send the email:
- Not all languages of Outlook do use the ALT+S keystroke to send an email. Perhaps you can switch the language of Outlook to English. In Word 2010: [File] » [Options] » [Language] » [Choose Display and Help Languages] » Now choose English as first.
- In some configurations, the email is not directly sent, but a pop-up is displayed. For example the spell-check. Disable this functionality while using OMMA.
- There is an exeptional configuration possible in Outlook 2003 that disables ALT+S. To check this configuration, you will have to look in the windows registry. In the registry folder: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Outlook\DisabledShortcutKeysCheckBoxes You will have to look for a key with the value "16,83". This value should be deleted. More info can be found in the text "Do not send via CTRL+ENTER or ALT+S", see MSOutlook.info.
