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Are you guys manually addressing or do you have mail merge software for e-mails? Advice on good choices for the Mac?

Edit: Does anyone know if downloading a mailmerge list from nalpdirectory.com contains the e-mail adress of the recruiting contact?

I recommend Microsoft Word. If you don't already have it, stop being a computer nerd and buy it.

Renzo wrote:I recommend Microsoft Word. If you don't already have it, stop being a computer nerd and buy it.

Word cannot mail-merge with attachments to e-mail.

(I do have it...)

I'm computer-tarded so I'm just addressing the cover letters manually before I email them. I am saving all documents in .doc form so I pray they are formatted correctly when they are opened up on the other end. I do enough customization and tailoring of each letter that addressing everything individually just seemed like the best option. Been sending them out all weekend so that they are waiting to be read first thing Monday morning (fingers crossed)

I want to say I sucessfully used Open Office for this purpose 1L year, but it's been a while.

Honestly, unless you run merges reguarly, the time you'll spend setting it up, fixing your mistakes, and then triple-checking to make certain that every email is correct will likely take roughly the same amount of time as doing everything manually.

blowhard wrote:

Renzo wrote:I recommend Microsoft Word. If you don't already have it, stop being a computer nerd and buy it.

Word cannot mail-merge with attachments to e-mail.

(I do have it...)

Set Outlook to be your default mail client, and it should work.

Anonymous User wrote:I'm computer-tarded so I'm just addressing the cover letters manually before I email them. I am saving all documents in .doc form so I pray they are formatted correctly when they are opened up on the other end. I do enough customization and tailoring of each letter that addressing everything individually just seemed like the best option. Been sending them out all weekend so that they are waiting to be read first thing Monday morning (fingers crossed)

I'd save to PDF if I was you, bro

rad law wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I'm computer-tarded so I'm just addressing the cover letters manually before I email them. I am saving all documents in .doc form so I pray they are formatted correctly when they are opened up on the other end. I do enough customization and tailoring of each letter that addressing everything individually just seemed like the best option. Been sending them out all weekend so that they are waiting to be read first thing Monday morning (fingers crossed)

I'd save to PDF if I was you, bro

You are right. I noticed that they are a bit oddly formatted when opened, so I'm doing everything as PDF now. Luckily, I only sent out a few this weekend, so I'm just sending a quick follow-up email, noting that a formatting issue was brought to my attention, and updating with a PDF version of my application package. As long as they get the update without issue, theres no problem.

Wordperfect > anything Word.

Anonymous User wrote:Wordperfect > anything Word.

Dude you might was well be cave painting at Lascaux bro

Anonymous User wrote:

rad law wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I'm computer-tarded so I'm just addressing the cover letters manually before I email them. I am saving all documents in .doc form so I pray they are formatted correctly when they are opened up on the other end. I do enough customization and tailoring of each letter that addressing everything individually just seemed like the best option. Been sending them out all weekend so that they are waiting to be read first thing Monday morning (fingers crossed)

I'd save to PDF if I was you, bro

You are right. I noticed that they are a bit oddly formatted when opened, so I'm doing everything as PDF now. Luckily, I only sent out a few this weekend, so I'm just sending a quick follow-up email, noting that a formatting issue was brought to my attention, and updating with a PDF version of my application package. As long as they get the update without issue, theres no problem.

PDFs also won't show those annoying green and red lines under the name of the firm

Renzo wrote:

blowhard wrote:

Renzo wrote:I recommend Microsoft Word. If you don't already have it, stop being a computer nerd and buy it.

Word cannot mail-merge with attachments to e-mail.

(I do have it...)

Set Outlook to be your default mail client, and it should work.

I can mail merge my cover letter to email. However, I cannot mail merge my cover letter to e-mail and attach my resume/transcript automatically. The only way I've been able to do it is to put outlook offline, merge, then go through each message in the outbox and attach prior to putting it back online.

Edit: This is a confirmed limitation of Word...not my understanding of it.

Anonymous User wrote:

rad law wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I'm computer-tarded so I'm just addressing the cover letters manually before I email them. I am saving all documents in .doc form so I pray they are formatted correctly when they are opened up on the other end. I do enough customization and tailoring of each letter that addressing everything individually just seemed like the best option. Been sending them out all weekend so that they are waiting to be read first thing Monday morning (fingers crossed)

I'd save to PDF if I was you, bro

You are right. I noticed that they are a bit oddly formatted when opened, so I'm doing everything as PDF now. Luckily, I only sent out a few this weekend, so I'm just sending a quick follow-up email, noting that a formatting issue was brought to my attention, and updating with a PDF version of my application package. As long as they get the update without issue, theres no problem.

Guess the little formatting hiccup, and subsequent PDF update email didn't hurt me. Got 2 interviews already out of the handful of applications I sent out to mid-size firms in my home market. Not bad so far.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

rad law wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I'm computer-tarded so I'm just addressing the cover letters manually before I email them. I am saving all documents in .doc form so I pray they are formatted correctly when they are opened up on the other end. I do enough customization and tailoring of each letter that addressing everything individually just seemed like the best option. Been sending them out all weekend so that they are waiting to be read first thing Monday morning (fingers crossed)

I'd save to PDF if I was you, bro

You are right. I noticed that they are a bit oddly formatted when opened, so I'm doing everything as PDF now. Luckily, I only sent out a few this weekend, so I'm just sending a quick follow-up email, noting that a formatting issue was brought to my attention, and updating with a PDF version of my application package. As long as they get the update without issue, theres no problem.

Guess the little formatting hiccup, and subsequent PDF update email didn't hurt me. Got 2 interviews already out of the handful of applications I sent out to mid-size firms in my home market. Not bad so far.

Congrats! It may have even worked in your favor, since it gave you a solid reason to follow up with them and draw attention to your materials.

@warumnicht

Yeah, I was certainly thinking that. It wasn't a huge formatting error. It just made it so they couldn't see all my contact info, so it gave me an excuse to not only re-forward them all my material and follow up, but also a chance to shove my phone number and email address in their face again.

blowhard wrote:

Renzo wrote:

blowhard wrote:

Renzo wrote:I recommend Microsoft Word. If you don't already have it, stop being a computer nerd and buy it.

Word cannot mail-merge with attachments to e-mail.

(I do have it...)

Set Outlook to be your default mail client, and it should work.

I can mail merge my cover letter to email. However, I cannot mail merge my cover letter to e-mail and attach my resume/transcript automatically. The only way I've been able to do it is to put outlook offline, merge, then go through each message in the outbox and attach prior to putting it back online.

Edit: This is a confirmed limitation of Word...not my understanding of it.

Oh, yeah. You can only merge an Office document, not unrelated attachments.

I never tried this (and can't be bothered now, bar procrastination can only be stretched so far), but it might be possible to run the merge in Word to create the emails, and then subsequently run a script in Outlook to automate the attachments.

Anonymous Loser wrote:I never tried this (and can't be bothered now, bar procrastination can only be stretched so far), but it might be possible to run the merge in Word to create the emails, and then subsequently run a script in Outlook to automate the attachments.

Actually, I just looked at Automator, and there's already a script to attach a document to Outlook. You're in business, OP.