Mailmerge email smtp.office365.com, please help with settings

[Penfold]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to use mailmerge to email contacts in a calc file. I cannot configure writer to send emails from my account whose outgoing server is smtp.office365.com. Someone please help!

It may be relevant that I have managed to configure outgoing mail in Thunderbird 52.1.1 (64 bit). The crucial step in configuring thunderbird seemed to be in naming/defining the smtp server. Thunderbird has a field for ‘description’ of the smtp server. It was when I added my email address in this field that I became able to send emails. But I cannot find an equivalent field in Libreoffice Writer.

To repeat the point about the outgoing mail server ‘description’ field in thunderbird not being present in Writer, the two programs end up showing the following:

(Thunderbird) “Outgoing server (SMTP) settings” = myemailaddress@myvuw.ac.nz - smtp.office365.com (default)

(Writer) “Outgoing server (SMTP) settings” = smtp.office365.com

I was planning to upload screenshots of settings, but am unable to do so. I have checked the settings against the info provided by the email provider.

Port setting is 587.

Another point is the ‘secure connection setting’. In writer the only option is to check the box marked SSL. But in thunderbird I have the setting STARTTLS.
I believe STARTTLS is the one designated by the email provider.

I hope someone can give some information on how I can send emails through Writer.

I am running Linuxmint 18 Sarah cinnamon 64 bit / Libreoffice writer 5.1.2.6

[Penfold]

Worked around this problem by using Thunderbird to do the mailmerge. Just install the “mailmerge” add-on for Thunderbird from Mozilla.

You have to type or copy and paste your email as you normally would in Thunderbird, by clicking “Write”.

You insert mailmerge fields by using this type of bracket: {{}}. For example, if your data file contains email addresses in a field called “Email”, you would type {{Email}} in the “to” field when composing the email in Thunderbird.

I put my data into a CSV file (not sure whether .ods is also possible).

To send or save as a draft, select File/Mailmerge. Here you will find options such as selecting your data file.