How to Mail Merge

…using Microsoft Word 2007

• Creating a mail merge involves four simple steps:

–Creating the original document–Creating a data source–Placing the merge fields–Conducting the merge

The Mail Merge feature allows you to easily personalize letters for each person on a mailing list. Mail Merge also works great for creating labels and printing addresses on envelopes.

Step One: Creating the Original Document

This step is easy. Simply start a new word processing document using Microsoft Word 2007. As you begin your document, think about areas within the text that could be personalized:

• Name• Address• Student’s Name• Parent’s Name• Greeting

Choose the Mailings command tab in Word

Choose letters from the Start Mail

Merge button, in the Start Mail Merge

group

From the Select Recipients button choose Type New List

What will you personalize…

• At this point you must decide which parts of the letter you will personalize

• For each part, you must create a field to be included in the table

• This data will change between letters• In this example use fields as follow:

– Title– Parent First Name– Parent Last Name– Address Line 1– Address Line 2 (for Apt #)– City– State– Zip

– Student Name– Award Name– Son or Daughter (Gender)– Pronoun (He or She)

Choose Customize Columns

Begin by removing the Field Names that will not be used: Company Name is the first. Highlight the name and click on Delete

Confirm that you want to delete this field

Delete, and confirm the deletion of these fields: Country or Region, Home Phone, Work Phone, E-mail Address

Now it is time to Add new fields as described in slide 7 above.

Type the new field name and confirm each addition

Add four fields: Student Name, Award Name, Gender, Pronoun

Begin entering data into the respective fields. For all but one record skip an entry into Address Line 2. That field is used to indicate such as Apartment numbers

At the end of each entry, press Tqb to skip to the next field, and Tab at the end of the record, to move to the first field of the second record. Continue until data has been completed for five records

At the end of the fifth record, when you press Tab a blank record will be created. Delete this entry (or you will merge a blank letter when completing the mail merge)

Click OK to finish the data entry. You will be prompted to save the Address List

MS Word will automatically try to save the file in the My Data Sources folder inside the My Documents folder. Call the file Data Source

At this point the data file is “connected” to the word processing file that you have started. You may Edit Recipient List to add, or delete entries, or otherwise edit the entries

It is time to build the letter. Begin by inserting an Address Block. Select the button from the Write & Insert Fields group

You should be able to accept the layout as shown, although you can re-arrange the address lines as you wish. Press OK when you are satistied with your choice

Press <Enter> to skip one line, and then select Greeting Line from the Write & Insert Fields group

Once again you should be able to accept the Greeting Line layout as is…select OK to continue

Press <Enter> again to skip one line.

• Two options to insert merge fields

• Each of these fields enables unique data

• Names, addresses, etc. are merged with text

• Merge fields are computer programming statements

• “Pull” data from connected Data Source file

At this point you can begin to compose the text for the letter. As you write, insert merge fields instead of specific names and other data. Select Insert Merge Field from the Write & Insert Fields group and select the field name for the specific data that you would have otherwise inserted

You can also insert the merge field by selecting the top portion of the Write & Insert Fields button. Insert the Title merge field first

After pressing <Enter> to skip one line, compose the body of the letter inviting parents to an assembly program to help to celebrate their student’s achievements. Use the Gender merge field to identify the student as son, or daughter.

At this point, add the Student Name merge field. It might be necessary to insert a comma after the Gender merge field, as well as after the Student Name merge field.

Use the Pronoun merge field to indicate whether the student is addressed as He or She

Identify the award that the student will be receiving by inserting the Award Name merge field.

As you finish the letter, with merge fields inserted, save your work, naming the file as Original Document, storing the file inside a folder where your portfolio work is stored

The completed document will look something like this. Make sure that you insert your name as the author. Check the document for spacing, commas where necessary, and include a graphic if you would like. Select Preview Results in the Preview Results group.

The preview shows the customized letters.

Cycle through the letters that have been produced, one letter resulting from each record in the Data Source

Select Finish & Merge and print the documents, or …

…edit and save the individual letters.

De-select the Preview Results button in order to edit or save the Original Document

If some of the letters reveal that one or more of the entries in a particular record is incorrect, select Edit Recipient List to edit the Data Source

Select the file name, in the lower left corner of the Mail Merge Recipients dialogue box that opens

Click Edit to make the changes that you need