Troubleshooting with CRM Mail Merge: Part 1

With the different mail merge issues we have seen throughout support, I have decided to put a blog together to gather some of the basic troubleshooting steps for different errors and issues. Some of this information you may have seen in an earlier post on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Blog back in 2008 for version 4.0. I have pasted a link to that below for reference as well:

MSCRM 4.0 Mail Merge Basics

We will start with the basics and move into the troubleshooting in Part 2.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Mail Merge

The CRM for Outlook client provides additional functionality that is not available with the CRM web client mail merge functionality alone.

• Ability to create activities associated with the mail merge in CRM (For example: If a letter mail merge is used, all recipients who receive the letter will have an associated activity record created in CRM)
• Automatically upload or update new or existing mail merge templates
• Ability to create Quick Campaigns from the Mail Merge
• Ability run Mail Merges from Quick Campaigns. These Quick Campaigns are containers for the activities created by the mail merge.

To start, the user must have a Security Role that has the required Outlook privileges to operate the Outlook client and the ‘Mail Merge’ privilege set to a level appropriate with the level of access for the user. To use the web client on a mail merge the ‘Web Mail Merge’ privilege must also be set to the level of access for the user. While on the subject of privileges, the user should also have access to the entity for the mail merge (Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities, Quotes and Custom Entities) and any related entities that we might want to merge data from.

Luckily, CRM has some built-in Security Roles, like Marketing Manager, Sales Person, Receptionist, Customer Service Representative and Customer Service Manager, which already have the settings for Mail Merge and Mail Merge Template creation.

Mail Merge Templates also require specific privileges; the Create, Read, Write, Delete, Assign and Share privileges set to a level appropriate with the level of access for the user.

Basic Outlook Mail Merge

With the exception of the first step, the steps below are intended to give the basic steps to perform an CRM Mail Merge from the Outlook Client, regardless of the point of invocation. For individual records, CRM Mail Merge can be invoked by clicking the Add tab on the ribbon and selecting Mail Merge when the record is highlighted. Sets of records returned by Advanced Find or included in a Mailing list are also points of CRM Mail Merge invocation.

• Start the CRM Outlook client and navigate to the CRM Contacts page (we need a couple of contacts to start with). From the CRM Contacts page, highlight the contacts to include in the merge, click Add, and click on the Mail Merge Icon (looks like a Word Symbol on a Page). This opens the Mail Merge form.

• From the Mail Merge form, select a mail merge type of E-mail. Letters, E-mails, Faxes, Envelopes, and Labels are supported and this mail merge type corresponds to Word’s mail merge types, which will set for you when you enter the mail merge.
• Select the radio button option for the Organization mail merge template which will allow you to select the template to use. Click on the Look-Up Icon and from the Look-Up Records dialog and select a mail merge template to use for this merge.
• Templates are either Organization (available to other users) or Personal. When saving a template from a mail merge the default is set to personal. This can be changed in the Mail Merge Template form or from the Mail Merge Template grid (Settings | Templates | Mail Merge Templates).

• At this point we can click the OK button to start the merge (opens MSWord).

          - The Merge section changes what records can be used for the merge.

          - The Data Fields button opens the Add Columns dialog, where additional entity and related entity fields can be selected to be included in the mail merge. Note: There is a 62 field limit and some juggling may be required to uncheck fields you will not use and check fields you require.

• The first time a Mail Merge Template is opened a Macro Alert may be displayed. Set Word to allow macros to run and click on the CRM Mail Merge Icon to run the Macro.
• After the Macro runs, Word’s Mail Merge Recipients dialog will appear. Click the OK button to continue with Mail Merge from the Wizard located in the task pane.
• In the bottom right-hand corner of the Word document, click Next: Preview your e-mail messages to view the merge before printing. The Preview your e-mail messages section has buttons that can be used to view each of the letters we are merging.

         - With the exception of Envelopes and Labels, the Write your e-mail message will be visible. At this point you can add text and/or additional fields to the mail merge document from the ‘More Items…’ hyperlink or from Word’s Mailing menu.

         - Mail Merge Field tags can be identified by the beginning ‘<<’ and ending ‘>>’ characters. To see field details use the Ctrl + F9 to toggle the field markers.

• Click Next: Complete the merge to navigate to the Complete the Merge task pane. In the Merge section, click the Electronic Mail option to pull up the Merge to E-mail

          - Optionally, from the Outlook Client only, the ‘Upload Template to CRM’ item should be visible. From this option, you can update the template you started with (assuming correct privileges) by clicking the ‘Yes’ button or create a new one by clicking the ‘No’ button. Cancel will stop the operation all together.