Description: This is a feature request. LibreOffice should be able to compose e-mail messages to mail merge, but it is NOT the responsibility of LibreOffice to actually send the messages. Rather, they should be handed off to a proper e-mail client such as Microsoft Outlook (or Mozilla Thunderbird). Steps to Reproduce: If it were possible to attach screenshots, I would do so here. 1.Start a mail merge to ANY data source, and it does not matter if it is Letters or E-mail Messages. 2. On the Mail Merge toolbar, click "E-mail Merged Documents." It's the button with an envelope positioned over two pieces of paper, the second such instance of said icon in the toolbar. 3. Click "Send Document." Actual Results: I get asked for SMTP credentials. Expected Results: LibreOffice should offer me the option to open Microsoft Outlook. The messages would then appear in my Outbox. Reproducible: Always User Profile Reset: Yes Additional Info: My workplace suffered a ransomware attack in December 2022, and as a result, we have banned all applications outside the Microsoft Outlook family from sending or receiving e-mail messages, including LibreOffice. Both LibreOffice and Microsoft Word via the PDFMaker add-on by Adobe (add-on for Word, included with Acrobat) allow me to mail merge a document such that the document is sent as a PDF attachment with a message that has a body. However, the PDFMaker add-on does NOT offer me the option to CC anybody, something from which I benefit greatly. I trust LibreOffice developers to make changes more than I trust employees of either Microsoft or Adobe. It's just the commitment to open-source software that shows through everything you do.
Created attachment 186335 [details] Location of Send E-mail Messages Button Location of Send E-mail Messages button on Mail Merge Toolbar
Created attachment 186336 [details] "E-mail merged document" dialog box "E-mail merged document" dialog box with "Copy to" and "Send" buttons highlighted
Created attachment 186338 [details] Pop-up I get when I click "Send"
Stuart, could you please add information from Help -> About LibreOffice? But I don't understand the use case: You create personalized documents. So you have to send a mail for each document. Why is tis easier with the own mail client? cc: Design-Team
Let me re-quote the first paragraph: My workplace suffered a ransomware attack in December 2022, and as a result, we have banned all applications outside the Microsoft Outlook family from sending or receiving e-mail messages, including LibreOffice. Because of the ransomware attack, it is implied that my institution has disabled support for both POP3 and IMAP. Not only MUST I use the Microsoft Exchange protocol for sending and receiving e-mails, but Microsoft has apparently made it possible for the server to know whether or not the e-mail address owner was using Microsoft Outlook to send and receive the e-mails. Hopefully that makes my use case a bit clearer. Thank you!!!
We do File > Send > Email Document... via the configured email client (Tools > Options > Internet > Email) and I think it should be done as well for mail merge. Sending as bulk with all recipients in To or BCC should be one option, the other to send every message individually, which could block the application for a while. Michael, is there any technical blocker for this?
The desired workflow is not fully clear to me yet. (In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #6) > We do File > Send > Email Document... via the configured email client (Tools > > Options > Internet > Email) and I think it should be done as well for mail > merge. From reading this ticket, it's unclear to me whether that is a comparable scenario, since (e.g. for Thunderbird) that scenario opens a new window/tab in the mail client to compose an email, with the document attached. The user then still has to manually enter the recipient and send the email, i.e. nothing gets sent automatically. (In reply to Stuart Simon from comment #0) > Expected Results: > LibreOffice should offer me the option to open Microsoft Outlook. The > messages would then appear in my Outbox. Does this mean that the email should automatically be sent somehow via Outlook without requiring the user to take any extra action or do you expect that a draft email (compose window,...) shows up and the user still manually selects "Send" for each single recipient? For sending automatically: If possible at all, this would presumably require the use of some API specific to the mail client, so very specific handling depending on the email client (not sure that would fit well into LO core, maybe rather something for an extension?) For manual sending: Would you then expect this to open 100 new windows/tabs with the single emails when there are 100 recipients and the use manually chooses to send every single one of them? (In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #6) > Sending as bulk with all recipients in To or BCC should be one option, IIUC, the usual use case for mail merge is that the letter/email is personalized, so each person gets a different message/e-mail attachment, and as far as I understand, that would not really fit well with this suggestion: Attaching all the different personalized messages for all people would IMHO be odd, and if there's just a single (non-personalized) message that everybody should get, I tend to think that this should be possible from the email client (without using LO mail merge). At least doesn't seem to be a typical use case for mail merge to me. > the other to send every message individually, which could block the application > for a while. s. question above wrt API vs. potentially very many windows/tabs opening in the email client and requiring manual user interaction; would be interested in a UX evaluation of that if that's the preferred option
Actually, personalizing both the message and the attachment is a feature that I at least wanted to request at some point before the mail merge. At my workplace, we offer trainings in person. We use a paper sign-up sheet to verify that the trainee attended the session in person. Then, we send them their training certificate via e-mail. The problem is that oftentimes they do not have personal e-mail addresses and expect that their e-mails would be sent to a corporate inbox shared among several individuals. To personalize the e-mail AND the attached certificate, both of which have their personal name, would be a great feature to have. I'm wondering if there can be an extension to support popular e-mail client integrations for mail merge (maybe separate ones for Outlook and Thunderbird). Outlook does not use the same format to store mail messages as most other e-mail clients (Outlook format is MSG, general format is EML). But we don't need hundreds of mail-client Compose windows either. The Word/Adobe integration does not actually open Outlook. It places messages in Outlook's primary Outbox. The messages are sent only when the user opens Outlook manually if it is not already open. Thank you!!!
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(In reply to Stuart Simon from comment #8) > [...] To personalize > the e-mail AND the attached certificate, both of which have their personal > name, would be a great feature to have. Feel free to open another enhancement request for this. I haven't used that feature myself, but the WollMux extension ( https://github.com/LibreOffice/WollMux ) provides the feature to have both a personalized document and a personalized email message for each recipient. WollMux might also be a helpful example for an extension that that does LO mail merge and provides additional features, e.g. when planning to create an extension that provides the feature to support sending the emails via specific email clients. > I'm wondering if there can be an extension to support popular e-mail client > integrations for mail merge (maybe separate ones for Outlook and > Thunderbird). Outlook does not use the same format to store mail messages as > most other e-mail clients (Outlook format is MSG, general format is EML). > But we don't need hundreds of mail-client Compose windows either. The > Word/Adobe integration does not actually open Outlook. It places messages in > Outlook's primary Outbox. The messages are sent only when the user opens > Outlook manually if it is not already open. Thanks for the explanation, that makes it much clearer. So IIUC, the Word/Adobe integrations do not really interact with Outlook via any API, but by placing the relevant files into the Outlook app data directory that are processed by Outlook the next time it is opened. I agree that opening a lot of compose windows doesn't sound like a great idea.
(In reply to Michael Weghorn from comment #7) > ...since (e.g. for Thunderbird) that scenario opens a new window/tab > in the mail client to compose an email, with the document attached. The user > then still has to manually enter the recipient and send the email, i.e. > nothing gets sent automatically. I made the use case wider with the idea to either send an individual message to anyone with one by one email or kind of use LibreOffice as email editor and send one message to everyone. Ultimately it would be a combined Merge Mail and Send as Email function. > For sending automatically: If possible at all, this would presumably require > the use of some API specific to the mail client, so very specific handling > depending on the email client (not sure that would fit well into LO core, > maybe rather something for an extension?) > > For manual sending: Would you then expect this to open 100 new windows/tabs > with the single emails when there are 100 recipients and the use manually > chooses to send every single one of them? Very valid questions. To support open source I'd be happy if the function was limited to Thunderbird for now.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #11) > To support open source I'd be happy if the function > was limited to Thunderbird for now. What I mean is that supporting open source apps only is acceptable for now.