Word Add-In from Connect for Office and Standard Mail Merge End of Support

This article answers a common question from Salesforce admins: why did Salesforce end support for the Word Add-In from Connect for Office and Standard Mail Merge, what happened after the end-of-support date, and what should you migrate to instead?

What Changed

To continue using the Word Add-In and/or Standard Mail Merge in Salesforce, users needed to upgrade to Connect for Office v1.8.1.6 by February 24, 2017, to meet the new standard certificate requirements and ensure product authenticity. The timeline for the end of support of the Word Add-In and/or Standard Mail Merge from Connect for Office did not change — Salesforce discontinued technical support, bug fixes, or enhancements for the Excel Add-In after March 4, 2017.

What Happened After the End of Support Date

If you worked with Connect for Office v1.8.1.5 and earlier after February 24, 2017, you no longer had the ability to create Microsoft Word document templates with Word Add-In from Connect for Office, and generating mail merge documents with Standard Mail Merge was no longer supported.

After March 4, 2017, all support services for Word Add-In from Connect for Office and Standard Mail Merge became unavailable. On Connect for Office running on Microsoft Windows Vista, this could result in:

• Microsoft Word failing to establish a login connection to Salesforce, so users could not create mail merge templates in Microsoft Word for use with the Salesforce mail merge utility.
• Salesforce failing to generate a Microsoft Word mail merge document from any Salesforce record using a Microsoft Word mail merge template created manually or via Word Add-In from Connect for Office.

Replacement Options for Word Add-In from Connect for Office

You have two options:

1. Manual entry of merge Salesforce fields in Microsoft Word templates — Instead of using the Salesforce object drag-and-drop functionality from Word Add-In from Connect for Office, you can manually type the Salesforce object field name in the Microsoft Word template. See the Create Mail Merge Templates Help topic. Existing Microsoft Word templates created with Word Add-In from Connect for Office can still be used with Extended Mail Merge after the end-of-support date, though changes to these templates require a manual update.
2. Select a solution from the Salesforce AppExchange — Identify an alternative solution from the Salesforce AppExchange by searching for keywords like template, generation, and mail merge. An additional purchase may be required.

Replacement for Standard Mail Merge

We encourage you to transition to Extended Mail Merge in Salesforce, which provides these differences and benefits over Standard Mail Merge:

• Completed mail merge documents are either emailed to the user or made available from the Docs object, depending on the admin's preference. Previously, with Standard Mail Merge, the completed merge Microsoft Word document was generated locally in Microsoft Word.
• Extended Mail Merge can merge multiple records.
• Extended Mail Merge supports Apple Mac OS X users.
• Extended Mail Merge is processed server-side (no ActiveX installation required) and doesn't require a Windows OS system with Microsoft Office installed locally.

See the Extended Mail Merge Features article for more details. You must open a case with Support to switch to Extended Mail Merge in your Salesforce org. Once the feature is enabled, activate Extended Mail Merge from Setup, then Customize, then User Interface: check the "Activate Extended Mail Merge" box.

How to Identify Affected Users

Salesforce admins can access the Login History page in Setup, export the results, and filter them by Application to identify which users use Word Add-In from Connect for Office.

Why Salesforce Retired These Products

Word Add-In from Connect for Office and Standard Mail Merge are only supported on Microsoft Windows Vista, which can't be configured to support TLS 1.1 or higher. Salesforce's disablement of TLS 1.0 drove the decision to end support for Word Add-In and/or Standard Mail Merge from Connect for Office.

Where to Get More Information

Join the discussion in the Productivity Success Community group.

If you have more questions, open a case with Support via Salesforce Help or contact your Salesforce account team. To view all current and past retirements, see Salesforce Product & Feature Retirements. For more information about Salesforce's approach to retiring products and features, read our Product & Feature Retirement Philosophy.