What is Mail Merge? Mail Merge Mail merge is a process to create personalized letters and pre-addressed envelopes or mailing labels for mass mailings from a word processing document which contains fixed text, which will be the same in each output document, and variables, which act as placeholders that are replaced by text from the data source. Mail merge allows the user to create a set of documents that are fundamentally the same but contain some diverging elements. Why use Mail Merge? Creating each letter, message, fax, label, envelope, or coupon individually would take hours. That's where mail merge comes in. Mail merge allows you to create one document that contains the information that applicable to each version. Then you just add placeholders for the information that is unique to each version. Creating Mail Merge Documents 1. Find and select the mailing tab to display the mailings toolbar. 2. Select Start Mail Merge. 3. Scroll down the drop down menu. Last Updated 7/26/2012 Mail Merge Page 1 of 10
4. Select Step By Step Mail Merge Wizard. 5. Choose your document type from the list under the Select document type heading. 6. Click on Next: Starting document. Last Updated 7/26/2012 Mail Merge Page 2 of 10
7. Select an option under the Select starting document heading. 8. Click on Next: Select recipients at the bottom of the toolbar. 9. Select Type a new list from under the Select recipients heading. 10. Click the Create button under the Type a new list heading. Last Updated 7/26/2012 Mail Merge Page 3 of 10
11. A pop-up box entitled New Address List will appear. Fill in any the identifying information for your addressees. If you would like to customize the informational fields, click the Customize Columns button in the bottom left corner. A popup box will appear where you can customize your address list. Last Updated 7/26/2012 Mail Merge Page 4 of 10
12. A Save Address List dialog box will appear. Give a descriptive file name (for example, Mail Merge Recipients ). Then click Save. IMPORTANT NOTE: You can also import Excel Spreadsheets and Access Databases for recipient information. 13. Pick your recipients by checking the boxes to the left of their names. (Make sure you re selecting from the correct data source) Last Updated 7/26/2012 Mail Merge Page 5 of 10
14. Check to make sure that you have selected a list of recipients. In this example, the line [Office Address List] in Mail Merge (shown below) shows that we are using the file we saved earlier. 15. Click on Next: Write your letter. 16. Here, you can add an address block and greeting line using the recipient list. 17. Click on Address block Last Updated 7/26/2012 Mail Merge Page 6 of 10
18. In the Insert Address Block pop-up box, you can select different styles of displaying recipients contact information. Once you are satisfied, click OK. 19. Notice that <<AddressBlock>> has been added to the body of the document. Click on Greeting line under the Write your letter heading. 20. Customize your greeting line. Last Updated 7/26/2012 Mail Merge Page 7 of 10
21. Click OK when satisfied. 22. Notice that <<GreetingLine>> has also been added to the body of the document under <<AddressBlock>>.Click Next: Preview your letters. Here, you can preview what the document will look like when filled in. Last Updated 7/26/2012 Mail Merge Page 8 of 10
23. Click the << or >> buttons to change the recipient in the preview. 24. When you are finished previewing the document, click: Next: Complete the merge. 25. Click on Print in the right hand mail merge column. IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT use the File Print or Ctrl + P methods to print Last Updated 7/26/2012 Mail Merge Page 9 of 10
26. Choose which records to print. All will print all the letters; Current Record will print only the letter currently being displayed. Then click OK. Once you click OK, the print dialog will show up, and you can proceed to printing it like a normal document. Sources: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/ch010062628.aspx http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/use-mail-merge-to-create-and-print-letters-andother-documents-ha101857701.aspx Last Updated 7/26/2012 Mail Merge Page 10 of 10