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Tag: Outlook default

The missing first step of Word & Outlook email merge

I set up an email merge using Word and Outlook 2010 this weekend and in my test run, my emails were sent from my personal email address not my business email address.

My first thought was to change the default account.  But that turned out to be only half-the-solution. We also have to change the default data file (.pst).

Here is the missing first step of email merge in Word and Outlook in ten micro-steps

  1. Choose the sender’s email address (which one of your email addresses do you want to use?).
  2. Open Outlook and go to File at the top left of your screen.
  3. Look down the list and at the bottom, select Info – it is near the top.
  4. Look in the big box and at the top is the email address that you are using (default or recent).
  5. Use the drop down list of accounts to choose the address to send from.
  6. Click on account settings and AGAIN on the information box that opens up (odd but that’s what you have to do).
  7. Look at the tabbed box that opens up – we will use the tabs for Email and Datafiles.
  8. Select the email address that you want to send from and then make it the Default.  The Default button is between the tab and the list of files.
  9. Look down to the bottom of the list and see which datafile (.pst) matches to the address that you have chosen.
  10. Go the the Datafiles tab.  Open it and make the datafile (.pst) that matches your new default email address.

When you return to the ordinary message view, your folder list should have re-ordered itself with the new default folder at the top.  I am not sure if you have to close Outlook and restart for just a change of defaults.  If your test still sends from the wrong email address, try closing and opening Outlook before you start looking for anything more complicated.

Remember: the first step in an email merge is not opening Word.  It is choosing which email address to send from and making the email address and its corresponding datafile (.pst) your default in Outlook.

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