The main document is the label, letter or other product that you
are producing. It always begins as a Word document. If you need to
perform the mail merge more than once, you'll want to save the
main document as a template prior to performing your first merge.
For our purpose of describing these steps, we are using a data
source file that contains six columns of data: First Name, Last
Name, Address, City, State, Zip.
If you have already typed your letter, open it. To create mailing
labels or envelopes, just have a blank document open.
Mail Merge Steps
Create
From Word's menu, choose Tools-Mail Merge, which invokes the Mail
Merge Helper. In Word XP, you'll choose Tools-Letters and
Mailings-Mail Merge Wizard. From this point, the steps are
virtually the same, except that Word XP's wizard is a bit more
helpful.
Hit the Create button and choose the type of document that you
want to create. If you've already opened your letter, or if you
are creating mailing labels or envelopes, then choose the Active
Window button when you are asked what document to use.
Get Data
Hit the Get Data button and you are asked about your data source.
Choose the appropriate option.
NOTE: If you choose Create Data Source in Word XP (2002), you will
be taken to an Access database by default. We believe most users
will be working with their previous setups. For previous versions,
continue reading.
If you choose Create Data Source, a form pops up into which you
can enter data. Follow the steps to produce the data file. Once
you have created this type of data source file, Word saves it in a
file in table format. If you plan to use the data again, it is
very important that you save this data file and know where on your
computer it has been saved. Any time you want to edit it, you can
use the mail merge option, or you can open the file directly and
edit the data directly in the table.
If you are getting your data from an existing data source file,
such as an Excel file, you need to choose Open Data Source, change
the Files of type to the type of file in which your data resides,
browse to your file, and then open it. When you have provided Word
with a data source file, you are prompted to Edit Main Document.
Choose this option. The mail merge toolbar appears; and will
appear whenever you open the main document unless you choose to
turn it off.
Edit Main Document
The Insert Merge Field dropdown on the mail merge toolbar provides
a list of the headings, labels, or field names in your data source
file. For our example, place your cursor in the document where you
would like the Name to appear and hit Insert Merge Field and
choose First Name from the dropdown. Insert a space in your main
document so that there is a space between the First Name and Last
Name. Hit Insert Merge Field and choose Last Name. You'll want to
hit Enter now to get to the next line. Insert the rest of the
merge fields as appropriate, remembering to type in punctuation
such as a comma and space after the City field and two spaces
after the State and before the Zip code.
After you have inserted all of your merge fields, you can test the
data by hitting the <
abc> button on the mail merge toolbar.
Turn the button off after testing.
At this point, save your file. It can be saved as a document or as
a template. If you save it as a template and want to perform the
merge now, close it, and then hit File-New and choose the
template. Saving as a template ensures that you won't overwrite
your main document.
Merge
Finally, to perform the merge, you can choose the appropriate
button from the mail merge toolbar, or from the Mail Merge Helper.
Choose to mail merge it to a New Document, Email, or to the
Printer. Because printers can sometimes cause problems, Dreamboat
suggests not to use the To Printer option. If your merged document
is more than about 100 items, I suggest you save the newly merged
document--at least temporarily--until you have completed printing
it. This allows you to print some now, and some tomorrow.
If you have not already done so, you now want to save the data
source file (if created in Word) and the main document. If you
intend to use the same main document again, save it as a template.