Open Question: Mail merge from excel to Outlook 2007?

This may be a confusing question....

I have a HUGE list of manager emails that I receive on a yearly basis for validation purposes. There is a column in the report that contains their user IDs (which if copied into MS Outlook, can be used as email address).

What I would like to do is use this list as a mass-email merge using Excel, Word, and Outlook---but I would like it to be automated, like record all steps using a macro, then assign a command button to it.

So here are my steps:

0. Start Marco Recording in Word 2007
1. Start Mail Merge in Word 2007; select Email option.
2. Open up pre-written Word document that will be mailed out.
3. Choose Select Recipients and point to Excel File I want.
4. Edit Recipients--use Autofilter to show desired names
5. Finish Mail Merge, choose which field from Excel sheet to use as email address.
6. Send.

ISSUE: The Mail Merge email sends the email to the entire people on the list (this could be up to 1000 people), instead of to the filtered list I created. THIS IS MY ISSUE

7. Stop Recording Macro.
8. Then I copy Macro VB Code and place it into a Command button.
9. Push Command Button, and the whole process starts again, and still does not filter results that I recorded in Macro.

So can anyone tell me a better way to do a mass-email from Excel to Outlook (where a Macro is able to be used, with autofiltering)

OR

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong in the Macro record process?

Problems: I guess recording macros and accessing different files (like recording a macro in Word to open a file in excel) doesn't work.