Teach Yourself Microsoft Office Excel Topic 11: Mail Merge

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1 Table Updated: 17 March 2018 Level 3 MS Excel Written by Gerry Kruyer Teach Yourself Microsoft Office Excel Topic 11: Mail Merge In this task you will learn how to merge data stored in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet into a Microsoft Word document so that you can create a set of mass produced but personalised letters, labels, envelopes, name tags, and more very quickly and easily. Each letter, label, envelope, name tag produced will contain a different name, address, phone number or whatever you decide you want to merge into your Word document. The process is called Mail Merge. Mail Merge When performing a Mail Merge, you will need two documents: a MS Word document and one MS Excel table of data that you want to merge into the MS Word document. Notes: 1/ You can also merge MS Access data into a MS Word document 2/ You cannot merge multiple Excel tables into one MS Word document. Revision from last lesson: A Table is a collection of organised data stored in rows with labelled column headings. You can think of a Table as a database, where rows are records and columns are fields. A field is a single column Column labels are field names (Header Row) A record is a single row in a list When you want to place data contained in spreadsheet (or database) records into a word processing document, then the file that the data is stored in is called the Data Source. The word processing document where the data from each record s fields are placed is called the Main Document. Special placeholders called Merge Fields are entered into the main document indicating where data from the data source will be inserted. This is best explained by the following exercise in which you will also revise knowledge gained in the provious few lessons: C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 1

2 Scenario: Imagine that you are the secretary at the Thornbury Free Education Network (TFEN). You have been asked to send a personalised letter to all learners in the eight-week Level 3 Word/Excel course. This letter contains the following details: The secretary has a MS Excel table containing private information about each learner s name and address details. This formal letter must include the TFEN logo, learner name and address details, date, space for a signature at the bottom of the letter etc. Learners complete one task per week and this is graded by their trainer. The eight results for each learner are saved into a MS Excel table by the trainer. The letter will detail results that learners have gained for each task that they completed in the eightweek course (out of 10) and also give their overall average result. TFEN has also decided that the letter will include a comment which will vary depending on the learner s overall average: 5 or less = Basic level of knowledge Greater than 5 to 6 = Good level of knowledge Greater than 6 to 8 = Very good level of knowledge Greater than 8 to 10 = Excellent level of knowledge Step 1/ Create the secretary s MS Excel spreadsheet of learner names and addresses. The field names (column headings) are given below with an example of one possible record that you do not have to use. Your job is to make up the six learner record details. BTW: Normally the secretary s spreadsheet would contain more fields such as a learner ID code, home phone number, mobile, , emergency contact but you do not have to add these. Save this table with the file name: learner-contact-details.xlsx Step 2/ In a new Excel workbook, create the trainer s spreadsheet of learner results for the eight weeks. Remember that results are out of 10. The field names (column headings) are shown below with one example of possible data that you do not have to use. Your job is to make up your own six learner record results details. Save this second workbook with the file name: learner-results.xlsx Question 1 Why should TFEN consider the secretary s database to be not available to other staff including tutors? Question 2 After typing in the Week 1 field name, what is the really quick way to insert the other seven Week 2 to Week 8 field headings? C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 2

3 Step 3/ Include a formula to work out the average for the first learner: Question 3 Did you use to a quick method to insert the average formula? Explain. Step 4/ Drag this formula down to find the average for the other five learners. Step 5/ We do not need any more than one decimal place for the eight-week average of each of the six learners. Save your additions and changes. Because you can only merge one Excel table of data into a MS Word document and because you are the secretary at TFEN, you will need to combine the trainers learner-results.xlsx worksheet with your learner-contact-details.xlsx worksheet rather than the other way around. You have asked the trainer to you the learner results table for the eight weeks of the course plus their overall average for the eight weeks. Step 6/ Sort both worksheets first to ensure all record entries are in exactly the same order and so match up. Remember you need to sort on First Name first and then on Surname. Follow these steps: a) Highlight one of your worksheets including the field headings. b) Home tab Editing group click on the button. c) Choose Custom Sort to bring up the Sort window shown right: d) Ensure is ticked. e) Next:. f) Then button to get a Then by row shown below: C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 3

4 g) And then:. h) Click OK. i) Save the sort. j) Repeat steps a) to i) above with your other spreadsheet. Step 7/ Carefully check again that both workbooks contain exactly the same people and that both worksheets are in exactly the same record order. Both your spreadsheets should now both be sorted ready for the next step. Important Note: To ensure that spreadsheet (or database) records contain unique data, normally each new record is given a unique ID number so that, in the case where two people for example have exactly the same name first name and surname, then there is some other field that can distinguish between them. Sometimes a photo of the person is included as well. Step 8/ Copy the cells from the trainer s learner-results.xlsx spreadsheet to your spreadsheet using the Paste Paste Link option ensuring that any updates in the tutor s spreadsheet are automatically reflected in your spreadsheet. Step 9/ You might need to format the Average field in your spreadsheet so it is showing only one decimal place. Your spreadsheet should now look much like this: Save your additions and changes. C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 4

5 Linking to Cells in Other MS Excel Workbooks Stored Outside of the Current Folder If you click on cell F2 in your spreadsheet, then you will notice the link formula reads: ='[learner-results.xlsx]learner_results'!c2 The bit inside the square brackets [ and ] is the filename of the trainer s results file. Following the closing square bracket is the trainer s file worksheet-tab name you are referencing. Notice the two single quote marks: '. These are used when there are non-standard alphanumeric characters used in either (or both) the file name or tab name. These could include -, _ and \. Then comes the! mark to act as a separator and finally comes the cell reference. Between the opening single quote mark ' and opening square bracket [, you can include a file path to an Excel file stored in another folder, on another drive connected to your computer, or even on a web server. (See the next question for an example of this.) So now you know how to create a link to a cell in a completely separate workbook. Question 4 What does the following data entered into a MS Excel worksheet cell mean? ='C:\Users\Manager\Documents\SPAN\cafe\[SPAN-Pay.xlsx]January'!E5 Step 10/ The next step is to include another column in the spreadsheet to the right of the Average field heading with the field heading Comment. Step 11/ Now include an extra VLOOKUP table within your spreadsheet containing the average/comment text supplied in the scenario above. Follow these points: a) Leave a least one blank column between your spreadsheet data and the VLOOKUP table simply because this avoids any confusion when looking at your table. b) Start your VLOOKUP table in row 1. (You want this to be as high up in your table as possible because otherwise, when you get to do your mail merge of Excel data into your MS Word letter later on, you will find that you have some letters with blank field entries.) c) Do not use any uppercase letters at the start of each cell of Comment Text (because these comments will not be used at the start of a sentence, rather they will be inserted into the middle of a sentence). d) Format your VLOOKUP table in some nice way to distinguish it from the rest of your table of data. This extra table will be used in a VLOOKUP formula to insert comments in your Comment column. The VLOOKUP table is shown on the right: Step 12/ Give the VLOOKUP data values (the green part of the table) a sensible name. C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 5

6 Step 13/ Also give your worksheet tab a sensible name and a colour of your choosing. For example:. Do not skip these last steps as they will both be very important later on when you merge your MS Excel fields into your MS Word document. Save your additions and changes. Step 14/ Now use the VLOOKUP table along with a VLOOOKUP formula to insert the appropriate comment text into the Comment column for only the first learner. Recall: Giving the green part of the VLOOKUP table range shown above a name will mean that you do not have to worry about cell reference addresses changing when you drag your formula down (see the next step) - otherwise you will have to insert the $ signs in absolute cell reference values. Step 15/ Drag the VLOOKUP formula down so that each of the learners has the correct formula for their average. Step 16/ Check that your table is working correctly by changing weekly results for the last learner in the trainer s table: learner-results.xlsx not in the secretary s table. (Recall that you linked the two tables together so the changes to learner results need to be made in the trainer s table.) Make sure that you see the comment for that last student change. Your spreadsheet should be similar to that shown below after making changes to the last learner s results: Now to create the MS Word document. You will not be placing any personal details in this document as yet just the details which will appear in every letter. Personal details will be merged into this document from your Excel spreadsheet in a later step. C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 6

7 Step 17/ Create the following MS Word document. a) Do not manually type in the green date place holder shown below. Instead of doing this you should insert a date here that should automatically update itself. (Hint: Insert ribbon Text group.) b) Remember to insert the logo which you can get it from my website. Re-size it if necessary. c) Do not type the red place holders in your letter as they appear in the document below. Instead leave blank lines for them. The place holder fields will be added in the next step; they are not added now. I have shown the (red) place holders in this document to show you where cell data from the MS Excel worksheet will be placed and where spaces will be included in a later step: d) Save this document as: learner-letter.docx C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 7

8 Step 18/ You are now at the point where you can insert the field names. It is best to work from the top of the document down. Follow the process below: a) If you have closed your learner-letter.docx document, then open it again. b) At this stage, if you have not removed the green date place holder, then do that now. Replace it with today s date making sure that you have set the language to English (Australia), chosen an appropriate date format, and checked Update automatically as shown on the right: c) Use the Format Painter tool to ensure the date is positioned immediately underneath the TFEN address, and with the same format, as the TFEN details. d) Ensure that there is a blank line of space before the date. e) Ensure that there are two blank lines of space after the date. (There should already be another three extra blank lines after this as well for the name/address fields that we are about to insert.) f) Click at the exact point where you want to insert a «First_Name» field over on the left side of the letter. g) Click on the MAILINGS tab. The ribbon will look like this: h) In the Start Mail Merge group, click on the Start Mail Merge button and, since you are doing a letter, select Letters as shown on the right: i) Next you have to choose the file that stores the details that you want to insert into your letter. To do this click on the Select Recipients button in the Start Mail Merge group and then select Use an Existing List as shown on the right: j) Now you have to navigate your way to your MS Excel contact details file that you named: learner-results.xlsx and select it. C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 8

9 k) Your Excel file contains two tables in the one worksheet: i. Your VLOOKUP table section that you hopefully gave a (sensible) name to. I called mine comment. ii. The actual spreadsheet of data containing the field data that you want to insert in your MS Word document. I renamed my worksheet tab:. You have to select the part of the workbook that you need. In my case it is not the comment option so I selected Learner_results$ as shown on the right: l) Make sure that First row of data contains column headers is checked as shown above. m) Click OK. n) In the Write & Insert Fields group click on the Insert Merge Field button and select the First_Name field as shown on the right: The top section of your MS Word document should now look like that shown below with the «First_Name» field inserted. C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 9

10 o) Insert a space after «First_Name» and repeat the last step but this time select Surname: p) On the right-hand side of the Mailings tab there is a Preview Results group: that allows you to click through and preview field data placed into your letter. Use the buttons in this group to see how your letter looks with actual data in it. Try this for yourself. q) When you have finished looking at how these buttons work, turn off the Preview Results button. r) On the next line insert the Street_Address field using the same process. s) On the line after that after insert the Suburb field using the same process. t) On the next line, after Victoria type a space and then insert the Postcode field using the same process as before. u) Click at the spot after Dear making sure you click after the space and just before the comma. If the space is missing then insert the space. v) Insert First_Name using the same process as used above. So far your MS Word document should be similar to the following shown on the right: Now you are up to the table of results section for the eight weeks. The process is the same as above. w) Click in the Week 1 result cell just before the /10 x) Insert the Week_1 field using the same process as before. Don t worry about the Week 1 place holder running across a few lines as this will be replaced by a number result out of 10. y) Repeat the previous step for the other seven weeks. z) Preview your work so far by using the buttons in the Preview Results group. C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 10

11 aa) You may not be happy with the formatting of your table so format it in a way that you think looks best. Play with it a bit until you are happy. Remember that you can highlight the entire table and then use the TABLE TOOLS DESIGN and LAYOUT ribbons to simplify the formatting process. Mine now looks like that shown on the right: bb) Lastly you have to insert the average and comment fields in the appropriate spots. You should be able to do this all on your own. Step 19/ Finished? Not quite: Just to make absolutely sure that we have checked everything, make sure that your spreadsheet includes at least one example of every possible comment from the Comment field column. You may have to make changes to your tutor s spreadsheet to get this to happen. Here is my secretary s spreadsheet after my changes where I altered data in my first record: Save changes to both spreadsheets. C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 11

12 Step 20/ Preview results for all six participants using the buttons in the Preview Results group to check for any: Formatting issues. Grammar errors. Spelling errors. Numerical problems such as too many decimal places. My preview for my first letter is shown on the right: Question 5 I know that there is one problem that relates to one or more of my group of six merged letters! What do you think the problem is? As a class we will discuss the previous question in detail. There are two different methods of solving the problem one manual and one partially automatic! We will use the automatic method Step 21/ Make sure the Preview Results button in the Preview Results group is switched off so that you see the field names. Step 22/ In the Previews Results group click on the Check for Errors button. This opens the Checking and Reporting Errors dialog box shown on the right: Step 23/ Click on the bottom radio button option as shown: Step 24/ Click on OK. C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 12

13 There is a small Proofing Errors button in the status bar at the bottomleft of the MS Word window. If you see a cross in it (as mine does), then there are one or more errors somewhere in the set of merged letters. Step 25/ Click on the button. In a few seconds MS Word will have analysed your six letters for spelling and grammar errors and will highlight any problems found. It will offer possible solutions in a Spelling and Grammar pane on the right-hand side of the MS Word window. Step 26/ At the bottom of the Spelling/Grammar pane set the language checker to English (Australia) as shown on the right: Step 27/ Ignore any place-name problems such as Thornbury. (MS Word does not know everything!) Step 28/ My error appears in my first letter as shown below. It is an a/an vowel/consonant issue. I will click on the Change button to fix up the problem in this particular letter. If you have an issue like this, then this is an easy way to solve these types of errors. Once all errors are removed you will get the message shown on the right: Step 29/ Click on OK and you will then be presented with a Readability Statistics report as shown on the right: Step 30/ Look at your statistics. Step 31/ Click on OK. C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 13

14 Question 6 Find out what you can about Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Question 7 Given that the letter has a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score of 11.8, how appropriate do you think the letter is given that it will be sent out to TFEN learners? Step 32/ You may also have problems with decimal places in merged numerical data (I don t but you might). Scroll through each letter and fix up any numerical issues. Step 33/ Rather than save your six letters as a MS Word document why not Export the six letters as a PDF. Step 34/ Save your PDF document to your network server space and then save all documents used in today s lesson to your USB stick. Challenge: Now that you have learnt how to merge MS Excel fields into a MS Word document to produce a set of personalised letters, can you figure out how to use these skills to automatically produce address stick-on labels or envelopes for your six letters. You will have to research how to cope with different sized labels and envelopes. If you solve this challenge and if there is time available, then we can have a show-and-tell. Close any MS Excel worksheets and MS Word documents you have open. Exit out of Excel and Word. You have now completed the learning task covering mail merge. There is an exercise to complete that tests the Excel skills that you learnt in this task. C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 14

15 Proof exercise Prove to Mr Kruyer that you have Learnt Excel Skills 1) Create a Spreadsheet to store the following data: «Title» Mr Mrs Capt. Lt. «First Name» George Jane James T Nyota «Surname» Jetson Jetson Kirk Uhura «Address Line 1» Skypad Apartments Skypad Apartments Enterprise Apartments Enterprise Apartments «Address Line 2» Level 68/38 High St Level 68/38 High St Level 18/25 High St Level 18/25 High St «Suburb» Thornbury Thornbury Preston Preston «State» Vic Vic Vic Vic «Postcode» «Account No» «Balance» ) Save this with an appropriate file name. 3) Either type up the main document shown below, or download the main text contained within the box below from my website (eastpac-letter.docx). 4) Insert extra blank lines wherever you think necessary. 5) To insert the Address Block field, use the Mailings tab s Write & Insert Fields group button. This opens the dialog box shown on the right: You may need to use the Match Fields button if some parts of the address details are missing. 6) The Greeting Line field is constructed using the Mailings tab s Write & Insert Fields group button. This opens the dialog box shown on the right: C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 15

16 The layout for the Eastpac letter: «Current Date» «Address Block» «Greeting Line» According to our records, your account balance (A/c No. «Account No») is currently 30 days overdue. Most of our customers appreciate a friendly reminder of an overdue account because they understand the importance of maintaining a good credit record. Please give this matter your prompt attention by arranging payment of your account balance of $«Balance». Please disregard this notice if you have made payment. Yours sincerely; J.P. Morgan Credit Manager Eastpac Preston 1) Check for any errors. 2) Mail Merge the address list with the main document so that a merge letter is printed for each bank customer. 3) Again, validate your results. 4) Save your files with sensible names. 5) Imagine that you have purchased a packet of Reflex mailing labels (24 labels per A4 sheet: 3 across x 8 down). Produce mailing labels for the four customers using print and peel Reflex label codes but do not bother printing them on labels; instead simply print to a single A4 sheet as proof that you can do it. 6) Show and tell next lesson! The best solution gets the much sought-after rocket stamp: Have you backed up all your work at the end of this lesson to your USB thumb drive? Have you been saving your work every 10 minutes? Show your MS Excel documents to Mr Kruyer for assessment. Also hand in the answers to the questions next week. Due Dates: All questions from this task and the homework exercise should be completed by next week s class. C:\Users\GerryKruyer\Documents\TAFE\microsoft\ms-office\Excel\learning-tasks\level-3\task11\TYMSExcel11.docx Page 16