MAIL MERGE

Letters, Envelopes & Letters, Envelopes & Labels Labels

WHAT IS IT?

Handling sending the same thing to a list [maybe Christmas cards?] of people:– Envelopes– Labels– Letters

TO: LOTS OF PEOPLE

The process we want to do is known as “merging” – frequently referred to as “mail merge”

To carry this process out needs two sets of information– The document to be produced – “Starting

Document”– Who To? – Recipient List – a “Data Source”

MAIL MERGE WIZARD

Once upon a time you needed special knowledge to carry out a merge. This may still be necessary for a complex merge. For example, when different text items may need to be inserted in different letters

For most personal uses “Mail Merge Wizard” will do what you want

The Wizard “talks” you through step-by-step

MAIL MERGE WIZARD

MAIL MERGE WIZARD

BEFORE WE BEGIN:

Some things to be aware of: Envelopes: Not a good plan to mix envelope

sizes when merging! Use labels instead Labels:

– Look through the list of labels to identify a size and manufacturer that suits.

– If you buy an alternative product- double check size & layout

– Check usage: some are laser only!

THE DATA SOURCE

Can be created inside the Wizard – but this can be a little clumsy

Can be an Excel file – created in Excel before merging begins

Can be a special form of Excel file created from your Address Book/Contact List – before merging begins

THE DATA SOURCE MUST CONTAIN ALLALL THE INFORMATION NEEDED FOR THE SET OF DOCUMENTS TO BE PRODUCED

STEP 1:CREATE OUR DATA SOURCE

We are going to work – initially – with an Excel file we create. This will tie together our previous work with Word & Excel

To save time – this has been pre-prepared

OUR FILE

WHEN THE FILE HAS BEEN CREATED:

Must be saved Can save anywhere but [in Windows 7] “My

Data Sources” is the best place – the Wizard looks here first as we shall see

The file must be closed before being used in a merge

SAVING THE FILE

NOW WE START THE WIZARD

We see this

WE ARE GOING TO USE “ENVELOPES” AS A FIRST EXAMPLE

Check “Change Document Layout” as we do not have either of the other options

Click “Envelope Options” to choose the size

CHOOSING:

NON-STANDARD ENVELOPES

WE SEE OUR ENVELOPE

WANT A RETURN ADDRESS?

GO TO STEP 3

OPEN YOUR FILE

“Browse” takes us to “My Data Sources” by default.

If you didn’t store your file here the look where you did store it

Double click to open the file

YOU WILL SEE:

NOW YOU SEE THIS

REFINE THE LIST IF NEEDED

Why might this be necessary? You may have a “master list” – but don’t want to send to all of

them This is a way to group if, for example, you are using different

envelopes

GO TO STEP 4

WHY DO WE SELECT “MORE ITEMS”?

The other options work best when the list has been created within the Wizard itself. This is the better option for a file you created

NOW YOU SEE THIS:

Note that you get a list of the “titles” that you created in the Excel file.

If you had NOT done this, the first line of “data” would have been lost since it would have been used as “titles”

START THE LAYOUT

Click on the first item you want to use, then click “Insert”

Click “Close”

WHAT YOU SEE

IMPORTANT

We will be repeating this process for each piece of data we need.

From a “format” aspect, each piece is inserted as if we were typing the actual data

So we need to add other formatting – spaces, punctuation, returns – BEFORE we insert the next piece

MORE INSERTS

We continue until all needed information has been inserted

Now click “Next” to go to Step 5

THE PREVIEW

Preview let’s you look at the finished results

By clicking the arrows, you can scroll through to see each one if desired

WE SEE THE MERGE HAPPENING

LAST STEP

Click “Next” to go to the final step

Click “Print” – make sure your printer is ready to go