Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

I'm sure there's a formula for removing items like the square brackets.

dunno about separating the name from the address if they're in the same cell.

Find and Replace feature - i.e. Find <[> and Replace < > and repeat for RHS ]

once you have done this, I would like to hear how you send out the group email.

In Outlook I am not able to send to more than 25 at a time .....

(thanks for all the help, and @Padlangs will let you know about bulk e-mailing in 2 weeks time, but I can send 500 at a time, I think):

I managed to do it now using the text to columns tool. I selected the entire column, then click on the 'text to columns' tool. Select the delimited option, then select 'other' character and put in a [. Then click finish. This will remove the first [ and put the addresses in a new colum next to the first one with just the ] at the end. Select this new column and repeat the text to columns process but this time using a ] character to remove the ] at the end.

I would suggest copying the entire source column to a new Excel sheet to begin with, just so that you don't mess up your original.

This worked really well - it was a less-technical solution to my problem, and sorted my problem perfectly.

thanks all!

For bulk mails it makes sense to use a company like www.graphicmail.co.za

You can track how many mails get opened, read, clicked on, forwarded, etc.

It also has a 'spam' detector - and will let you know if your mail is too spammy.

Got to this a bit late but was going to suggest the text-to-column solution, I use it all the time.

For sending out bulk emails, and if you don't want to go the graphicmail way (which is recommended), you should use Office's mail merge: type the email up in Word, then use your Excel sheet with name/email columns as the data source. The emails get sent via Outlook, but are individually addressed i.e. it will send out 1500 individual emails. The advantage is that you can customise each email, e.g. starting it with "Dear {firstname} ..." etc, include images etc. Give me a shout if you want me to pop over - working from home in Hout Bay at the moment and happy for any excuse to slip out 

@Tiaan and @ Cloud - brilliant info from both of you - mailing is 3 weeks away, once website is sorted - will keep you both posted, as well as others that are interested!

Cheers!

Tiaan's mail merge idea sounds good, just check with your internet service provider that you're allowed to send bulk mails - they may block em.

I'm also pretty sure that graphicmail will allow you to customize each mail with the recipient's name.