Thanks all for your help.

For the sake of anyone else who wants to play with it, the following
is what I came up with and it works for me, but no guarantees for
anybody else.

I have put buttons on my task bar. Actually I have a few: Dear,
Dear_reply_all, Hi, Hello, Many thanks. All have differing salutations
etc.

Dear_reply_all uses Set NewMsg = myItem.ReplyAll


-----------------------

Sub Dear_Name_if()
Dim myItem As Outlook.MailItem
Dim NewMsg As Outlook.MailItem

' get valid ref to current item
On Error Resume Next
Select Case TypeName(Application.ActiveWindow)
Case "Explorer"
Set myItem = ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
myItem.Display
Case "Inspector"
Set myItem = ActiveInspector.CurrentItem
Case Else
End Select
On Error GoTo 0

If myItem Is Nothing Then
MsgBox "Could not use current item. Please select or open a
single email.", _
vbInformation
GoTo ExitProc

End If

Set NewMsg = myItem.Reply

With NewMsg

NewMsg.BodyFormat = olFormatHTML


.HTMLBody = "<span style=""font-size:11.0pt;font-family:
Arial;color:#1F497D""><p>Regards, Mark" & vbCr & vbCr & vbCr & vbCr &
"</p>" & .HTMLBody

.HTMLBody = "<span style=""font-size:11.0pt;font-family:
Arial;color:#1F497D""><p> " & "</p><br />" & .HTMLBody


If myItem.SenderName, " " Then

.HTMLBody = "<span style=""font-family : Arial;font-size :
11pt;color:#1F497D""><p>Dear " & Left$(myItem.SenderName, InStr(1,
myItem.SenderName, " ") - 1) & ",</p></span>" & .HTMLBody

Else
.HTMLBody = "<span style=""font-family : Arial;font-size :
11pt;color:#1F497D""><p>Dear " & Left$(myItem.SenderName, InStr(1,
myItem.SenderName, "@") - 1) & ",</p></span>" & .HTMLBody

End If


End With

myItem.Close olDiscard

NewMsg.Display


ExitProc:
Set myItem = Nothing
Set NewMsg = Nothing

End Sub