"Mail merge"—a dreaded phrase in the world of word processing! Not only does it conjure up an image of piles of junk mail, but associated terms such as "fields" and "conditional expressions" add to the intimidation factor.
However, with just a little effort—and a lot of help from Word—when you need to send nearly identical letters to numerous people, you can create your own mail-merged documents and personalized form letters.
Create your letter as you would any other letter, leaving blank any parts that you want to be completed with data from your mailing list. Save the letter.
On the Mailings tab, click the Start Mail Merge button, and choose Letters from the drop-down menu.
Click the Select Recipients button, and specify the type of data you want to use for your mailing list:Type New List to enter your data in the New Address List dialog box.
Use Existing List to use data that exists in a file Word can read. To see which type of data sources you can use, open the Files Of Type list in the Select Data Source dialog box, and review the list.
Select From Outlook Contacts to use data from your Outlook Contacts list.
Click Edit Recipient List to display the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box.
Select or clear check boxes to designate whom you want to include in the mail merge.
Click an arrow for the field you want to sort or filter by, and select your action from the list that appears. Click OK when you’ve finished.
- In your document, click where you want to add information from your data source.
- In the dialog box that appears, specify the options you want, and then click OK. Continue adding items to the letter.
- Click the Preview Results button to display your data in the document.
- Use the buttons to see how your form letters will look when they’re merged with the different data records.
- Click Edit Recipient List if you see that the form letter you’re previewing is addressed to someone you don’t want to include in this mailing. In the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box, clear the check box for that individual, and click OK.
Click Auto Check For Errors, and choose to do a simulated merge to check the document for errors. Correct any errors.
Click Finish & Merge, and specify how you want your letters to be completed.
