Comparative Analysis

While everyone that we interviewed used Microsoft Word with the mail merge sidebar to perform mail merges, a number of other solutions will perform the same or similar functions. We compared Word with a sidebar, Word with a toolbar, OpenOffice Writer, and a plug-in for Act! called Mail Merge 2005.

Comparative Summary
 

Products

Feature Word (Sidebar) Word (Toolbar) OpenOffice Writer Mail Merge 2005

Gather Data

  • Difficult to import and filter directly from source
  • Supports diverse data types
  • Slightly more convienient access than with sidebar
  • Other aspects the same
  • Difficult to import and filter directly from source
  • Supports diverse data types
  • Easy when using ACT! database software
  • Difficult to use other databases
Format Data
  • Mostly done in an external program, such as Excel
  • Mostly done in an external program, such as Excel
  • Mostly done in an external program
  • Less auto-matching than Word
  • Consistent labeling when used with ACT!
Write Uniform Content
  • Standard powerful Word feature set
  • Discourages use of templates
  • Standard powerful Word feature set
  • Discourages use of templates, but perhaps less than with the sidebar
  • More difficult to access than Word, because of separate Wizard dialog
  • Better at encouraging template creation
  • Template-driven conceptual model encourages reusing uniform content
  • Built-in word processor is not powerful
Write Personalized Content
  • Clucky interface with poor labels
  • Most powerful system, but advanced features go unused because of difficulty
  • More convient access than sidebar
  • Slightly better access to advanced features
  • Other aspects the same
  • Less flexibilty than Word, but similar in concept
  • Less powerful and more difficult to use than Word
  • Easy input of popular fields
  • Difficult when using databases other than ACT! or databases with categories out of the ordinary
Create Output
  • Confusing limitations based on document type
  • Can output in all essential forms
  • Confusing file management
  • Better document type handling than with sidebar
  • Other aspects the same
  • Standard output capabilities
  • Encourages document reuse
  • Summary of recipients is intuitive
  • Easy to manually add/remove recipients
Verify
  • Preview function is more intuitive than with the toolbar, but more limited
  • Preview is more useful, but more confusing than with the sidebar
  • Similar to Word's preview capabilities
  • Preview function is unintuitive
  • Cannot edit previewed text since it comes up in a browser