F3 Mail Merge
A completely free and open-source mail merge tool for Gmail/Google Sheets.
F3 Mail Merge
Faiz’s Fully Free Mail Merge (F3 Mail Merge) is a mail-merge tool for Gmail and Google Sheets.
It is freely licensed and will always be completely free to use without any restrictions (except those imposed by the Gmail API). No one should have to pay a subscription fee for a tool as simple as mail merge.
Installation
Installation instructions will be added once F3 is published to the Add-ons store.
Usage
Open a spreadsheet containing the data you want to mail-merge. Once F3 is installed, you should see a new menu item called “F3 Mail Merge” in the toolbar. Navigate to the sheet with your merge data on it and select “Start Mail Merge” to begin. After a few seconds, you’ll see a view like this:
The options are as follows:
- Sender Name: This is the name that will appear in the “From” field of the emails you send. It defaults to your email address, but you can change it to anything you want.
- Email Template: This is derived from the list of drafts in your Gmail account.
Select the draft you want to use as the template for your mail merge. The draft
should have placeholders for the data you want to insert in the body and/or subject.
Placeholders are of the form
{{column_name}}, wherecolumn_nameis the name of the column in your spreadsheet that contains the data you want to insert.
Limitations
To ensure that F3 stays free to use forever without creating a maintenance burden, it is subject to a couple of limitations:
- F3 will not support link-tracking or open-tracking. These features are easy to implement but require a server to be maintained. This tool should work forever without any intervention on my part.
- No support or warranty is provided. If you discover a bug, please do file an issue and I will endeavor to fix it, but I make no promises.
Other than that, please enjoy using F3 Mail Merge (and your extra $20–200/year from not paying for something else)! If you find it useful, please do share it with your friends and colleagues.