LibreOffice Writer Not talking to Thunderbird or sending merged emails

[Penngwyne]

Hi
I was looking forward to LibreOffice but have found I can’t send merged emails from
Writer Version 7.3.3.2/LibreOffice Community, on linux mint 20.3 Cinnamon.
Thunderbird 91.8.1 (64-bit)
I note that problems with email LibreOffice seem to have been happening for a while.
Some of the solutions are beyond my expertise, and I haven’t been able to find a solution via google.

Single writer documents won’t open my thunderbird client. (File/Send/email…etc)
Internet email is set to /usr/bin/thunderbird I have also tried /bin/thunderbird but writer won’t let me email a file.(or is it Thunderbird?)

gmail hates me for trying to talk to it directly for mail merged docs in writer.
In Tools/Options I have tried changing outgoing server settings to a different server but writer keeps reverting to gmail.

I created 2 writer documents from database queries. One is to print out for no emails
(works well) the other is to send out emails. I was having problems with the version included in the Mint package so followed instructions using the terminal and tried Open Office, which I didn’t like, and also didn’t work. I then Installed this version from the repository and here I am, almost about to try MS office in vm with windows. (getting desparate)

[Hrbrgr]

Maybe this is helpful:

Sending Documents as Email

How to send a bulk mailing by e-mail?

[Penngwyne]

Thank you for the reply
I have been through through these steps (too many times) and have had no result
When I try to mail merge libreoffice locks up and I have to wait to escape when it times out.
If I knew anything about coding I might be able to see where it fails

[Hrbrgr]

One last tip from me:
Since I use Windows, I have to set in the operating system with which e-mail program (default program) to communicate. I assume that there must be something similar in Linux.
Otherwise someone else may help you.

[mikekaganski]

Mail merge does not use email client to send emails; it uses Python’s smtplib for that, with separate configuration at Options|Writer|Mail Merge Email.

It does not support anything except SMTP; so it can’t use gmail IIUC, on any platform.

OTOH, for individual emails (e.g., File|Send), on all platforms except Windows, options on Options|Internet|Email are used. On Windows, a default MAPI email application is used.

[Penngwyne]

Thanks for that
I was starting to realize that gmail smtp wasn’t going to work after the problems in the past with ms outlook (old version). Gmail doesn’t like less secure apps. I tried outlook and bigpond but same same.

So I have to find a full function office suite that will work on Linux Mint, or go back to ms word and excel.
Or merge to separate files and send the 27 individual ones as attachments, a bit of a step backwards either way.

The file /send for individual emails doesn’t work for me either. Looking at the instructions I found I tried
/usr/bin/thunderbird & /bin/thunderbird but no luck there in opening thunderbird client
Perhaps I found the wrong instructions?

[Wanderer]

It is a complex and divers topic. Lets start with gmail:

@Penngwyne

starting to realize that gmail smtp wasn’t going to work after the problems in the past with ms outlook (old version). Gmail doesn’t like less secure apps.

I’m using Thunderbird with gmail, but it needs a configuration within gmail to allow “less secure” appilcations. Only after this is done you can access the mails from Thunderbird. So this should be possible with most clients. But I guess it is not possible to combine it with 2-factor security.

@Penngwyne

Looking at the instructions I found I tried
/usr/bin/thunderbird & /bin/thunderbird but no luck there in opening thunderbird client

Because of an older discussion on the topic, where it seems, thunderbird didn’t allow mail with attachments from mailto-links (security-feature) I actually use a simple macro to call thundebird via shell() and compose the mail on the command-line.

If this macro would help you a I can post it, when I am on my laptop next time. However this is no solution for mail-merge.

PS: I remember a similiar question recently. There the “solution” was to use mutt as client for the mails…

Edit: found it at:

How to send Email in Evolution mail using Calc Macro

I am searching forums but unfortunately I can not find the exact code that I need. I do not know if I am not good in searching. I am sorry for that. I am new in Ubuntu OS and I want to send an email in Evolution mail using Libreoffice calc. What I am working with is that when I click the “SEND” button, it will send a message automatically to specific recipient and the cell range will be body of the letter. Hope that you can help me to finish my project. Thanks to those person who have big he…

[mikekaganski]

@Penngwyne

/usr/bin/thunderbird & /bin/thunderbird but no luck there in opening thunderbird client

/usr/bin/thunderbird -compose works for me.
And by the way, auto-detection (by clearing the configuration in Options, and relying on fallbacks like xdg-email) also works here on Ubuntu for me.

[Penngwyne]

Thanks for that
Having a bad memory I wrote -compile and it got me to thunderbird
but once I re-read your reply -compose works much faster to open the client

I can now send single emails from writer, it helps a lot.

I should probably learn to code

[Wanderer]

@Penngwyne

I should probably learn to code

Errors will happen always. But it is a good idea to show the actual command-line you used, a screenshot of a configuration or actual macro-code to avoid a lot of guesswork.