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This feature is not universally availaableavailable. Request Gmail Merge at helpdesk@lehigh.edu or request to join this Google Group which automatically provisions you in 24ish hours.
Note that the feature does not appear to be supported in Safari, but works in Edge, Firefox, and Chrome.
Gmail merge options
There are two options for conducting a mail merge in Gmail:
- Multi-send. You enter the recipients manually and use default variables @firstname, @lastname, and @email to personalize the message. This is best for under 25 recipients.
- Mail merge with Sheets. You create a spreadsheet with a minimum firstname, lastname, email columns. You can only send up to 1500 emails email recipients a day.
Before you use the new Gmail merge:
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Step 6. Click Continue to start the process of sending your email.
Comments from testing...
- In initial testing, for whatever reason, the Sheet selected didn't "take" – if this happens check to make sure you are the owner; look at the error message for clues of the problem, e.g, Duplicate entries.
- You cannot send to external email recipients (non-Lehigh email). This feature does not appear to work in Safari, but works in Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
- The mass email feature does not handle Google Drive doc attachments/links; the email displays only the text of the Drive file name.
- The mass email feature will accept links as variables so long as the link begins http:// or https:// – the rendered variable displays as a link in the sent mail.
- The preview message did always work. If you do not get the message, do not refresh the page to check for new email. Refreshing deletes the compose message content.
- When you Send all messages, your sent mail will show the email template, then each individual message.