How to do a mass email in a personalized fashion?

[Gagan]

I dont have the Word plugin for Sugar.So mail merge doesnt work fo rme..All, I am intending to achieve is a simple problem.Here it is:

I have created an email template . Lets say I want to send an email to A and B.With the help of Insert Variable: in "email template" I can send email to A and B both.But it will be addressed to the very first name.So the A and B both will be addressed as MR A.

Is there a way I can address my emails to individuals name?

Thanks in advance for replying.

[sugarcane]

hello,

if you use the campaigns module to send out mass emails, the emails will contain the appropriate name variable to each contact you are sending to.

[Supermu]

is that the only way to do it?

i'm after some way of simply selecting a bunch of contacts, and then composing an email (without having to use a campaign), sent to each recipient as if it was an individual email, with a custom "Dear [first_name]" starting each email.

Surely, this must be possible out of the box....? Or am I dreaming? I tried ......... Couldn't figure it out, and thought Sugar might.

I'd rather avoid using Outlook, the internal mail client is fine, and a local smtp relay (i have this setup).

Thanks
Jesper