Mail Merge Quick Reference Guide

Transcription

1 Mail Merge Letters To mail merge letters two documents are needed: 1. The letter, including all text that does not change. 2. Recipient names and addresses (a) The document containing recipient names and addresses is known as the DATA FILE and can be in four formats: (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) Another Word document (data must be in a Word table) An Excel spreadsheet An Access database Outlook Contacts If the data file is in Word, Excel or Access, the recipient names and addresses should be in a standard format with column headings in the first row, for example: If data is not in a standard format, spend some time re-organising the data BEFORE doing the mail merge. It doesn t matter if the data file contains columns which won t be used in the mail merge. In this example the ContactID column would not be used. 1

2 Open the letter Place blank lines in the letter where you want the name and address, and salutation Go to Mailings tab, click Start Mail Merge / Letters This marks the letter as a Mail Merge Document To reverse this process (if you change your mind): Mailings / Start Mail Merge / Normal Word Document Select the recipients: Mailings Select Use Existing List and navigate to the file data file Or choose Select From Outlook Contacts If selecting an Excel file choose the worksheet, or the table for an Access file Ensure First Row of Data Contains Column Headers is ticked Click on Edit Recipient List to select a subset of recipients, sort recipients or setup filter criteria (skip this step if all recipients are required) 2

3 Place cursor where name and address should go in letter and click the Insert Merge Field button Insert all fields needed for name and address Don t worry if the fields go on the wrong lines, or need spaces between they can be adjusted later See below for how completed fields should look Click the Preview Results button to see how the merged letters will look Use the arrow keys to scroll through the records Finally click the Finish & Merge button and choose Edit Individual Documents. A new document will open containing all the merge letters which can be adjusted and printed. 3

4 Mail Merge s This process can be started either from Word or Outlook Start the process from Word: 1. Type your message in an ordinary Word document, leaving a space for the recipient name 2. Go to Mailings / Start Mail Merge / messages 3. Word will change your view to Web Layout 4. Click Select Recipients and choose Select from Outlook Contacts 5. Place cursor at insertion point for recipient name 6. Click Insert Merge Field choose the appropriate field to insert 7. Click Preview Results and scroll through the records 8. Click Finish & Merge and choose Send Messages 9. Enter a Subject for the , click OK the s will be sent 10. Note you cannot include attachments in merged s 11. The individual sent messages will appear in your Sent Items folder Start the process from Outlook: 1. Go to Contacts folder and select recipients (a) No need to select if message is for all recipients 2. Go to Tools / Mail Merge you will see the Mail Merge Contacts dialogue 3. In the Merge Options section at the bottom change Merge to to , and type in a subject for the s 4. Click OK and a new Word document will open 5. In Word type your message then go to Insert Merge Field, to add fields for recipient names 6. Click Preview Results, review, and then click Finish and Merge / Send Messages as before. 4

5 Mail Merge Labels and Envelopes Mail Merge Labels 1. In a blank Word document, go to Mailings / Start Mail Merge / Labels you will see the Label Options dialogue 2. Choose your labels, click OK 3. Go to Select Recipients and choose your data file 4. Go to Edit Recipient List if needed 5. Click Insert Merge Field and insert the fields for the upper left-hand label (a) At this stage the field in the other labels will say Next Record 6. Click the Update Labels button, to propagate the merge fields to the other labels 7. Click Preview Results 8. Click Finish & Merge / Edit Individual Documents 9. Adjust and print to label sheet 5

6 Mail Merge Envelopes 1. In a blank Word document go to Mailings/ Start Mail Merge / Envelopes 2. Choose the size of envelope, click OK 3. Word will change the paper size to the size of the envelope 4. Click in the recipient name and address area 5. Click Select Recipients and Edit Recipient List (if required) as usual 6. Click Insert Merge Field and place the merge fields in the recipient address area 7. (Optional) Type return address at top left in the lines provided 8. Click Review Results 9. Click Finish & Merge / Edit Individual Documents 10. Review and print 11. May have to print one by one if using manual feed for envelopes 6

7 Advanced Mail Merge If... Then... Else In a large database of recipients there may be incomplete information held for some recipients. For example we may know the first name of some recipients but only have initials for others. In such a scenario we may want to address the recipient by first name if we have it, but as Title plus Last Name otherwise. We can set up an if... then... else rule for the salutation. 1. Select recipients and edit recipient list as usual for a mail merge letter 2. Click at the end of the salutation line 3. Click the Rules button on the Mailings tab, and select If... Then... Else 4. Select the field representing First Name from the Field Name drop-down list 5. Select Is Blank from the Comparison list 6. Click OK 7. Select the whole of the salutation paragraph, including the paragraph mark at the end and press Shift + F9 8. There will be three sets of quotes at the end of the field code 9. The first set of quotes is part of the condition we set up it means is blank 10. The second set of quotes will tell Word what to do if the condition is true 11. The third set of quotes will tell Word what to do if the condition is false 7

8 12. We need to insert the Merge Fields for Title and Last Name inside the first set of quotes, and the Merge Field for First Name inside the third set of quotes 13. Position the cursor inside the second set of quotes 14. Click the lower half of the Insert Merge Field Button and choose the field representing Title 15. After doing this the field code will be hidden reveal it again as before by selecting the whole paragraph and pressing Shift + F9 16. Position the cursor after the closing curly bracket of the Title field, but before the closing quote, type a space, and then insert the field representing Last Name using the Insert Merge Field button 17. As you insert fields you will mostly likely have to reveal the code again each time by selecting the paragraph and pressing Shift _ F9 18. Now click between the third set of quotes and insert the field representing First Name 19. The completed nested field code should look as below: 20. Now Review Results, then Finish & Merge / Edit Individual documents as usual. 8

9 Advanced Mail Merge Fill-in The Fill-in field enables inserting personalised information which is not held in the main database. For example you may wish to thank a customer for their recent purchase, but the data relating to items purchased is not in your recipient data file. 1. Link the letter to recipients and edit the recipient list as usual 2. Place the cursor where the variable information is to be inserted 3. Go to Mailings / Rules / Fill-in type the prompt 4. Note the space at the end of the Prompt before the full stop we will complete this by inserting fields which identify each record during the mail merge 5. Click OK 6. Click OK again when the prompt appears 7. Select the paragraph where you inserted the Fill-in field, including the paragraph marker and press Shift + F9 8. Position cursor in the appropriate place to the left of the closing quote, click Insert Merge Field and insert fields which will identify each record e.g. Title, Last Name (a) This is an important step otherwise the prompt for each record will be the same 9. In this example the complete nested field would appear as below: 10. Preview Results, then Finish & Merge / Edit Individual Documents as usual 11. A prompt including the recipient s name will appear for each record enabling manual entry of the items purchased 9

10 Advanced Mail Merge Ask Using the Ask field is similar to Fill-in but is useful if you want to add the same variable information more than once in each letter. You may, for example, want to refer to the amount of a payment received a number of times in a letter to a customer. Using the ASK field means you will be prompted for the amount, but only have to type it once per letter. First place the ASK field at the beginning of the letter. The exact position of this field is not important, so long as it goes in front of the places where the information is to be inserted. 1. Place cursor anywhere before the information to be inserted 2. Go to Mailings / Rules / Ask 3. Enter a bookmark name of your choice 4. Enter the prompt you would like to see 5. As with Fill-in we will insert Merge Fields later to clarify which record the prompt relates to 6. Select the blank line where the Ask field was inserted and press Shift + F9 7. Click in the field code after the prompt text (but before the closing quote) and insert the fields for Title and Last Name (or other identifying fields) by clicking the Insert Merge Field button. 8. Now go to each place in the letter where the information is to be inserted. Press Control + F9 to insert a blank field, and type REF followed by a space, followed by the bookmark name we used in the ASK field. 9. Note that although it is customary to enter field names in upper case, they are not in fact case sensitive. 10

11 FILLIN and ASK Example The screenshot below shows field codes set up for both Fill-in and Ask fields. The scenario is application letters for a job vacancy. The applicants' contacts details have been entered in our data source, hence the use of the merge field "Name". However, the date of the application letter and the interview date are not in our data source. We might have the printed letters sitting on the desk and would like to be prompted to fill-in the application letter date and the interview date as the merge progresses. We have referred to the application letter date only once, so we use the FILLIN field. The interview date is referred to twice, so for this we use the ASK field. 11

12 Troubleshooting A problem can sometimes arise with an Excel data source where number and date formats are not reflected correctly in the merged document. In the example shown below, dates which appear in Excel in the format DD/MM/YYYY are shown as MM/DD/YYYY when merged into a Word document. Excel Name Price Quantity Date Mr A Smith /03/2013 Mrs B Jeavons /03/2013 Mr A Rafter /03/2013 Word The following steps should rectify this problem: 1. In Word Options / Advanced choose "Confirm file format conversion on open" (a) (b) In Word 2007 click the Office button and choose Word Options In Word 2010 go to the File tab and choose Word Options 12

13 2. Start setting up the mail merge in Word as normal 3. When linking to the Excel data source, the following dialogue will now appear: 4. Click "Show all" at the bottom left and then choose "MS Excel Worksheets via DDE" 5. The merged data should now appear in the correct format. 13