Mail Merge using a Shared Mailbox

Mail Merge using Shared Mailbox

Situation: You want to do a Mail Merge using Microsoft Word

Problem: You want the e-mails to be sent From a Shared Mailbox address, not your personal address. But a Word Mail Merge automatically uses the primary account in Outlook.

Solution: Set up a second Outlook Profile that only contains the Shared Mailbox address, and use that when performing the Mail Merge:

  1. Open the Control Panel
  2. Change the “View By:” dropdown (upper right) to ‘Large icons’ or ‘Small icons’ (if not already)
  3. Select ‘Mail’ in Control Panel
  4. Select ‘Show Profiles…’
  5. Select ‘Add…’
  6. Enter a Profile Name that indicates the Shared Mailbox you intend to use, and click OK
  7. In the Add Account window, it will probably auto-fill your personal e-mail address.
    1. Erase that, and type in the e-mail address of the Shared Mailbox.
    2. Erase your name from the ‘Your Name’ box
    3. Leave the password boxes blank
    4. Click Next
    5. It should successfully configure the account. Click Finish
  8. If it prompts for credentials, erase the auto-filled username and enter your personal credentials (username@unbc.ca)
  9. (Optional) Change the ‘When starting Microsoft Outlook, use this profile’ to ‘Prompt for a profile to be used’
    1. If you do this, Outlook will ask you which profile to use each time you start Outlook. If you won’t want that, leave it at ‘Always use this profile’. If so, you’ll have to come back here to change the default Profile each time you want to do a Mail Merge
  10. Click OK

Now, exit Outlook and re-open. It should prompt you for a profile to use (or use whichever one you picked as the default). Assuming that it has loaded the Shared Mailbox account only (not your personal account), you should be able to do the Mail Merge.

Mailbox Login Credentials

If at any time you are prompted for a password, make sure it is showing your personal username, and not the shared mailbox email address. If it's showing the shared mailbox email address, select the More choices or Sign in with another account option, and enter your own personal username and password.

 

Alternate Method - Add Second Account, Set as Default for Composing Messages

If the steps described above are not working, there is a different option you can try. At a high level, the steps are:

  1. Manually add the shared mailbox to your main Profile, as a second Account
  2. Set the Shared Mailbox as the Default account
  3. Enable the Outlook Mail option to "Always use the default account when composing new messages"

Full instructions, with pictures, are available at https://support.uidaho.edu/TDClient/40/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=1909

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