Misty MarchioneMaricopa County Public Defender’s Office

July 22, 2015

Mail MergeMicrosoft Office 2010

Table of Contents

Introduction to Mail Merge........................................................................................................1Create Your Data Source Document in Excel..............................................................................2

How to Enter the Data.........................................................................................................................2

Using the Mail Merge Wizard.....................................................................................................3Step 1 of 6: Select Document Type.....................................................................................................3

Step 2 of 6: Select Starting Document................................................................................................4

Step 3 of 6: Select Recipients..............................................................................................................4

Filtering and Sorting Data................................................................................................................ 6

Step 4 of 6: Write Your Letter.............................................................................................................7

Insert an Address Block....................................................................................................................7

Preview Results................................................................................................................................8

Inserting a Greeting Line..................................................................................................................8

Inserting Individual Merge Fields (More Items)...............................................................................9

Matching Fields..............................................................................................................................10

Step 5 of 6: Preview Your Letters......................................................................................................11

Step 6 of 6: Complete the Merge......................................................................................................12

Print............................................................................................................................................... 12

Edit Individual Letters.................................................................................................................... 13

Quick Print While Previewing.........................................................................................................13

Using the Mailings Tab..............................................................................................................14Mailings Tab Overview...................................................................................................................... 14

Selecting a Starting Document..........................................................................................................15

Selecting and Editing Recipients........................................................................................................15

Adding Fields..................................................................................................................................... 16

Previewing and Finishing the Merge.................................................................................................16

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Introduction to Mail Merge

Mail Merge is a method of taking data from a database or spreadsheet and inserting it into Word documents such as letters, envelopes and labels using Merge Fields. In order to create a mail merge, two documents are needed: a file with the data or records (usually an Excel document) and a Word document containing both the instructions for where to insert the individualized data and the information that will be identical across each of the letters or labels.

Below are a few definitions of terms that you will see throughout this manual:

1. Data Source The source of information that is unique to each individual and changes in each merged document.

2. Data Form An online form used to enter information into the data source. Each screen includes all the fields of a data record. This form enables you to add, delete, or modify records in the data source.

3. Field names Headings for each column or category of information in the data source

4. Merge fields Insertion points in the main document where data fields are merged.

5. Sort To place items in a specific order, either numerically or alphabetically.

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Create Your Data Source Document in Excel

Create an Excel document that includes all of the individualized information that needs to be merged into the Word document. For instance, name, address, court dates, etc.

How to Enter the Data

The data in your Excel document should be organized neatly into Rows and Columns. Think of each row as a single record and each column as a field you are going to insert into your document.

Create a Header Row that contains labels that will identify the data in the cells below. Later when you are merging the data with the main document, the labels will appear as the names of the merge fields, so there will be no confusion as to what data you are inserting into your document.

Break your fields down into the smallest possible values to give you more flexibility when entering your data fields into your Word document. For example, create a separate field for First and Last names and break the City, State and ZIP of an address into separate fields as well.

An example of why you want to break the information into small values is that you might want to refer to the First name of an individual in a salutation and then use the First and Last names in the address block.

The data you intend to use for the mail merge should be on one Sheet.

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Using the Mail Merge Wizard

The Word document will serve as a template for your customized merged documents. It contains everything that will stay the same for each document of the merge.

Step 1 of 6: Select Document Type

1. Open Word and then open the file you are using for your merge, or create a new, blank document if you are starting from scratch.

2. On the Mailings tab in the Start Mail Merge group, click Start Mail Merge and select Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard. The Mail Merge task pane will appear on the right side of the window.

3. Select document type is the 1st step of the mail merge wizard. The most common mail merge uses are for letters, envelopes and labels. For this example, we’ll be creating a form letter so we’ll leave the option button next to Letters selected.

4. At the bottom of the task pane, click the Next: Starting document link and Step 2 will appear in the task pane.

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Step 2 of 6: Select Starting Document

1. Select starting document is the 2nd step of the Mail Merge Wizard. For this example, we’re going to use the blank open document we are currently in so we’ll leave the option button next to Use the current document selected.

2. At the bottom of the task pane, click the Next: Select recipients link and Step 3 will appear in the task pane.

Step 3 of 6: Select Recipients

1. Select recipients is the 3rd step of the Mail Merge Wizard. This step is where you make the connection to your Data Source, in this case an Excel Spreadsheet. Keep the option button next to Use an existing list selected.

2. In the Use an existing list area, click the Browse link and the Select Data Source window opens.

3. Navigate to the Excel document that contains the data that you want to merge into the letter and select it.

4. Click Open and the Select Table window will open.

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5. If you have named the sheets in your Excel document, you will see the names of the sheets in the window. In this example, I have not renamed the sheets so you see the generic (Sheet1, Sheet2 and Sheet3) names in the window. Each worksheet in an Excel spreadsheet is regarded as a Table. My source data is in Sheet1 so I’m going to select Sheet1$.

6. Make sure that the checkbox next to First row of data contains column headers is checked.

7. Click OK and the Mail Merge Recipients window opens.

The Mail Merge Recipients window allows you to view, select and filter the recipients from your data source. The information is presented as a table that can be sorted by columnS.

8. Click OK to close the Mail Merge Recipients window.

Note: Don’t forget to Save your document as you are working on it to ensure you don’t lose any of your work.

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Filtering and Sorting Data

You don't have to create a separate Source Data file for each merge that you want to perform. You can modify your merge during the merge process by filtering and sorting the records.

To Sort or Filter, you will need to begin by reopening the Mail Merge Recipient window. Click the Edit Recipients List command on the Mailings tab in the Start Mail Merge group.

Filtering Filtering allows you to choose only specific records from the Data Source to merge into the form. For example, you might be using a Data Source that has information for 50 clients but you only need to create letters for 10 of them.

1. Adding or removing checkmarks adds or removes recipients from the merge list.

Sorting Sorting is a way of changing the order in which records are listed. By sorting records you can organize the data so that you can work with the data more easily. You can also control the order in which the merged documents are printed.

2. In the Mail Merge Recipients window, clicking the column headings (such as Last Name) sorts the list in ascending order according to the information in that column. Clicking the column headings again sorts the list in descending order. (Note: This does not change the way the information is sorted in the Data Source document – the Excel document in this case).

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Step 4 of 6: Write Your Letter

Write your letter is the 4th step of the Mail Merge Wizard.

1. At the bottom of the task pane, click the Next: Write your letter link and the Wizard opens the Write your Letter task pane.

This is the step where you write the letter, insert the merge fields, and layout and format the letter. You can specify which fields you want to include in the letter. In this example, we will follow the “Address block…,” “Greeting line…,” and “More items…” links to place merge fields into the form letter.

Insert an Address Block

We’ll begin this step by inserting an Address Block in the document.

1. Start by placing your cursor in the Word document where you want the Address Block inserted.

2. In the Mail Merge pane, click the Address block link and the Insert Address Block window appears.

3. The scrolling list in the Insert recipient’s name in this format window contains various combinations of formats for names, which includes ways of addressing the recipient. (The scrolling list is disabled when the checkbox is unchecked). Select the format that you would like to use from the scrolling list. Note the preview pane.

4. Make sure the checkbox next to Insert postal address remains checked.

5. Click OK and the Address Block placeholder is inserted into your form letter:

Note: Our data source does not have a company name field or a country or region field so those options are grayed out.

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Preview Results

You can preview what the letter will look like at any point by clicking the Preview Results option on the ribbon.

Inserting a Greeting Line

1. In the Mail Merge pane, click the Greeting line… link and the Insert Greeting Line window appears.

2. The Greeting line for invalid recipient names field contains text that will appear for any record that does not have valid data for this field (or when there is no first or last name field). You can choose Dear Sir or Madam, To Whom It May Concern: or just a blank line, listed as (none).

3. The preview field shows a sample greeting line based on the options that you have selected.

4. When you have completed selecting your options for the Greeting line click OK and the Greeting Line placeholder is inserted into your form letter.

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Inserting Individual Merge Fields (More Items)

You are now ready to write the body of your letter where you’ll add additional merge fields from the Insert Merge Field window.

1. In this example, I’m going to add a reference line between the Address Block and the Greeting Line. I’ve added space between the Address Block and Greeting line to make room for the reference line and added the text that I want to appear before the Merge field.

2. The next step is to click on the More items… link to bring up the Insert Merge Field window.

3. The two option buttons allow you to select from either the Address Fields or Database Fields. By default, the Database Fields button will be active.

Address Fields consists of typical fields that are used by Word in addresses. Database Fields contain the specific fields (column headers) of your data source.

Keep the option button next to Database Fields selected.

4. Select the field that you want to insert and click the Insert button. You can also double-click the field to insert it into your document.

5. Once you have entered a field into the document, the Cancel button at the bottom of the window will change to a Close button. When you are done inserting fields, click the Close button.

6. Continue typing the text of your document and entering the Merge fields using the steps above until you have completed your document.

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Matching Fields

You may have noticed that the Match Fields… button is an option in the windows used to insert fields.

To open the Match Fields window you can:

1. Click the Match Fields command on the Mailings tab in the Write & Insert Fields group.

- OR - 2. Click the Match Fields button while you have one of the Insert windows open.

The Match Fields window establishes a correspondence between the general fields of Word and the specific fields of the Data Source.

The Match Fields window allows you to see how Address Fields are matched to columns in your Data Source. This matching is done either automatically by Word or specifically by you through the Match Fields window. Each row in the scrolling frame has a drop-down box that contains the name of each column (field) of the Data Source as well as an option that reads (not matched).

Word will pre-select the option in each drop-down box that best matches the name of the general address field. If Word does not make a match, then (not matched) is selected. You can match them manually by using the drop-down fields.

Note: If you have a field in your Data Source called Title, Word will pre-select the Title option in the drop-down box for Courtesy Title, even if you meant Title to correspond to the Word field called Job Title.

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Step 5 of 6: Preview Your Letters

Previewing your letters is the 5th step of the Mail Merge Wizard. Previewing the merge is useful in that you can ensure that the information from your data source is merged correctly

1. At the bottom of the task pane, click the Next: Preview your letters link and the Wizard opens the Preview your letters pane.

2. You may preview and cycle through your list of recipients by using the navigation buttons in the top section of the pane. Click the arrow buttons to go to the previous or next record in the list.

3. Click the Find a recipient link to locate a particular record.

4. If you want to add recipients to the list, you can click the Edit recipient list… link to bring up the Mail Merge Recipients window.

5. Clicking the Exclude this recipient button will remove the record that is being previewed from the list.

Note: If you find that you have made a mistake in placing your merge fields or in matching the fields to your Data Source, in the Mail Merge pane, click the Previous: Write Your Letter link so you can work in the previous pane.

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Step 6 of 6: Complete the Merge

Complete the merge is the 6th and final step of the Mail Merge Wizard.

1. At the bottom of the task pane, click the Complete the merge link and the Wizard opens the Complete the merge pane.

At this point, you have two choices for producing the letters:

Print… Send the completed letters directly to the printer.

Edit individual letters… Create a separate document containing the completed letters.

Print

To print:

1. In the Mail Merge task pane, click the Print… link. The Merge to Printer window opens.

2. Make sure the option button next to All is selected in order to merge all records or select a print range.

3. Click OK and your printer window appears. Check your print settings, and print your letters.

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Edit Individual Letters

Some people prefer the Edit individual letters option over the Print option because it allows them to review the letters one last time before sending them to the printer.

To edit individual letters:

1. In the Mail Merge task pane, click the Edit individual letters… link. The Merge to New Document window opens.

2. Make sure the option button next to All is selected in order to merge all records or select a print range.

3. Click OK and a new document, usually named Letters1, opens with a separate page for each letter. You can customize, save and print this document just like you would with any other Word document.

Quick Print While Previewing

You can quickly print an individual record that you are Previewing at any time. In the example below, I only need to print record 5. Instead of clicking the Finish & Merge option, I can print the document while previewing it just like any other Word document.

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Using the Mailings Tab

Although the Mail Merge Wizard is great for creating basic documents, you may want to use the Mail Merge tools independently of the Wizard. (You can also use the Mailings tab to enhance a Wizard-created merge.) In this section, we’ll look at how to manually insert fields into your document and perform a mail merge without the Wizard.

Mailings Tab Overview

1. Create Envelopes Click this button to open the Envelopes and Labels window that will allow you to create envelopes.

Labels Click this button to open the Envelopes and Labels window that will allow you to create labels.

3. Start Mail Merge

Start Mail Merge Choose what kind of Mail Merge you want to start.

Select Recipients Choose the source for your recipient list.

Edit Recipient List Make changes to your recipient list.

6. Write & Insert Fields

Highlight Merge Fields Highlight fields that will be merged to each record.

Address Block Create and insert an Address Block merge field.

Greeting Line Create and insert a Greeting Line merge field.

Insert Merge Field Insert other types of merge fields.Rules Create rules for an advanced merge.

Match Fields Match fields in your recipient list to merge fields.

Update Labels If you are creating labels and have made any changes, click this button to update them.

13. Preview Results

Preview Results Preview your merge.

Navigate through merged records.

Find Recipient Find a particular recipient.

Auto Check for Errors Check your mail merge for problems.

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17. Finish Finish and Merge Complete the merge.

Selecting a Starting Document

If you’re performing a mail merge on your own, you should choose a starting document so that Word gives you the appropriate options. Simply click the Start Mail Merge button and choose the document type.

Selecting and Editing Recipients

To choose your recipients, click the Select Recipients button on the Mailings tab and then choose a source for your recipient list.

Once you choose a source, you will see a dialog box prompting you for more information. If you ever need to edit the list, click Edit Recipient List (next to Select Recipients).

Note: If you are using an Excel document that contains your data source, choose the Use Existing List… option and then browse for the Excel document just as we did with the Mail Merge Wizard.

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Adding Fields

To add fields, place your cursor where you want the field to appear in the document and click any field name in the Write and Insert Fields group of the Mailings tab.

You will then be prompted to customize that element, just as we did with the Mail Merge Wizard.

Previewing and Finishing the Merge

To preview the results of your merge, click the Preview Results button. This command can be toggled on and off, giving you an easy way to check what the finished product will look like.

Once your document is ready to be merged, click the Finish and Merge button and choose your option just as we did with the Mail Merge Wizard.

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