Just what I was looking for in a Mac mail merge solution
I was really having trouble trying to figure out the best of doing mail merge to my customers.
Word 2008 requires you use Entourage as the default mail client, and Word 2011 requires you use Outlook. But I want to use standard Mail App. Plus I want to send directly via SMTP.
Im using FileMaker Pro Advanced for my database (and its great for that), but FileMakers mail merge feature is very poor: you have to awkwardly construct the mails using a calculation field, there is no preview, there is no mail progress and only text mail is possible. (FileMaker purists will script work-arounds, but to be honest, I think they are all way too complicated, and still dont do everything SerialMailer does.)
Then I found SerialMailer and it had everything I needed:
(1) I could easily import the export from FIleMaker or Excel.
(2) I could create plain text, formatted or HTML mails easily in the simple editor included. You can even include attachments.
(3) I could preview the emails one by one. This was very important to me.
(4) When sending via SMTP I can view the progress. I encountered an error with one recipients email address, was able to fix it right there and then send to that user and the remaining users without any fuss.
(5) Each mail you send is saved in a special file containing the recipients and the mail you created, so you can open it up, resend if you want, check the log, copy the file and create a new mail with the same recipients, etc.
(6) It includes its own database. So when you import the export from FileMaker or Excel it saves the info in its own internal database from which you can create a new mail.
Basically, it just works great. And safely. Its not bloatware, but Im sure there will be bells and whistles people want as time goes by. The developer seems friendly and responsive.
Im very surprised this software is not better known. It really fills a missing gap on the Mac - the ability to easily, without any fuss, create a mail merge from FileMaker or Excel or any other CSV source.
Im just a happy customer who was glad to find this solution after searching around for a while. It has saved me a huge amount of time already.
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SerialMailer