Mail Merge Tool for Microsoft Outlook

Version: 3.6 (2025-09-05) Author: AI Assistant (Purple)

A robust Python script for creating personalized Outlook email drafts using CSV contact list and Markdown templates.

📦 Features:

• Automatic encoding detection for CSV files
• Smart handling of special characters in subjects/body
• Empty row skipping in CSV processing
• Markdown-to-HTML conversion with Outlook formatting
• Automatic attachment handling
• Comprehensive logging and error handling
• Windows-1252/UTF-8 CSV support
• Symbol cleaning for problematic characters

⚙️ Requirements:

• Windows OS with Microsoft Outlook installed
• Python 3.9 or newer
• Required Python packages:
  • pywin32 (for Outlook integration)
  • markdown (for template processing)
  • chardet (for encoding detection)

📥 Installation:

1. Install Python from python.org (check "Add to PATH" during installation)
2. Open Command Prompt and run: pip install pywin32 markdown chardet or python -m pip install pywin32 markdown chardet

📂 File Structure: MailMergeTool/ ├── MailMerge.py # Main script ├── contacts.csv # Recipient data (required) ├── email_template.md # Email template markdown file (required) ├── Attachments/ # Folder for email attachments ├── run.bat # Run this file to activate the script └── ReadMe.txt # This file

📝 Setup Instructions:

1. CSV File Preparation:

   • Required columns: To, CC, BCC, Subject, Attachments
   • Other columns are optional, and can be used in the e-mail template for insertion, a contents of a column like Name replace <>

2. Template File:

   • Create email_template.md using Markdown syntax (https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax)

   • Use <> placeholders for CSV data

   • Example:

     Hello <>,

     Please find attached <>.

3. Attachments (optional):

   • Place files in the Attachments folder
   • Reference in CSV as comma-separated filenames in the attachment column.

🚀 Usage:

1. Place all files in the same directory
2. Open Outlook
3. Double click to execute run.bat

📋 Output:

• Creates Outlook drafts in your default Outlook profile
• Generates log file: mail_merge_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS.log
• Success/failure summary in console and log

🔧 Troubleshooting: Q: Getting encoding errors? A: Ensure CSV is saved as UTF-8 or Windows-1252 encoding

Q: Empty rows being skipped? A: This is intentional - check your CSV for blank lines

Q: Attachments not loading? A: Verify:

• Files are in Attachments folder
• Filenames match exactly in CSV with commas between file names
• No spaces before/after filenames in CSV

Q: Outlook not responding? A: Check if Outlook is running in the background first

📄 License: Free for personal and business use. Modify as needed.

⚠️ Disclaimer:

• Always test with small batches first
• Verify drafts before sending
• Maintain data privacy - this script does NOT send emails automatically

📧 Support: Contact your local Python developer for assistance