Mail Merge

[JTGreeno]

UPDATE: 18-Jan-2009: FYI, I solved this by writing my own functions. The 3rd party addins seemed like overkill, so I built my own with just a few files:
- one mySQL table,
- one form to display the table and select recipients,
- one form to edit records,
- one script to insert/update records,
- one form to author the custom messages,
- one script to send the mail...

The HTML message includes a link that enables non-HTML clients to click a link and be directed to their custom message, including custom graphics, etc.
_____________________________________________

I want to send a customized eMail message to a group of people; the greeting and the first paragraph would be unique for each addressee, and the second paragraph would be the same for all. The mail format needs to be HTML.

Is there a simple "canned solution" that can do this? I don't want to use a 3rd party "service" because they often include footers that I would not want on this message, but I am open to installing an applet that would provide this functionality...

My other alternative would be to create a mySQL database to hold the contact information and the custom content, and then use PHP to merge and send the mail -- I haven't done this in mySQL/PHP before, and would probably need some advice on how to trigger the query to automate and loop through the mail() command. (But I am very familiar with php coding, and a basic knowledge of mySQL)

The ideal solution would permit me to code the template page with variables for the customized text that pull the respective data from each record of the DB as the query processes all records that match the coded selection criteria...

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[Nancy]

I think everyone is sending out Season Greetings! There are a flurry of emails on various forums about mail merge.

I just set up poMMo on blue host simple scripts. It was a quick and easy to configure and doesn't add anything to the emails.

Good luck!