How to create a mail merge (2024)

1. Mail merge basics

This article will step you through the basics of creating a mail merge and contains links to some of the more advanced features.

Sometimes the term “mail merge” can be a little misleading. We assume from the title that the intent of mail merge is to produce letters for mass mailing purposes. That's not necessarily the case.

Mail merge primarily consists of two files, the Main Document and theData Source. The Main Document contains the information that will remain the same in eachrecord, and the Data Source contains all the variable information, in theform of fields. This is the information that will change in the Main Document when the merge is completed. Along with the information that remains the same, the Main Document also contains merge fields, which are references to the fields in the Data Source.

When the Main Document and Data Source are merged, Microsoft Word replaces each merge field in the Main Document with thedata from the respective field contained in the Data Source. The end result is a third document, a combination of the Main Document and DataSource – although you can also mail merge directly to the printer; (or faxor email) – you don't need tocreate a merged document on screen; and you can also “preview” themail merge without actually merging (using the ViewMergedData button).

Step

Comments

1.	If you have an existing file you want to use as the merge document open it now.

For WordPerfect users this would be the primary file

2.	Start the Mail Merge Helper by going to Tools/MailMerge.

Select the type of Main Document you wish to create.

You will be asked whether you want to use the Active Window or a New Document. To use the documentyou opened in Step 1, select Active Window.

If you selectNew Document, Word will create a blank document based on the Normaltemplate. For most purposes it is much better to use a template specific tothe task in hand rather than the Normal template; so Active Window isusually the better choice.

Form Letters – A Section Break is placed between records in the completed merge.

Mailing Labels – Records are merged to a table representing the label layout.If you use the wizard to create your labels, Word will insert a «NextRecord» field at the startof every table cell except the first one. If creating your own customisedlabel template, you will need to insert the «Next Record» fields yourself(you can use the “InsertWord Field” button to dothis).

Catalog – Records are merged continuously; use for mailing lists, telephone directories, etc.

Envelopes – Similar to form letters except that an envelope paper definition is used.

4.	Click Get Data to select your Data Source. There are four methods you can use for your Data Source:

Create Data Source

This uses Wordas the Data Source; setup your fields and type the data for the first time. Thedata is then stored in a Word table, which can easily be transferred to anExcel Data Source later if required.

Note that you may find even a WordData Source easier to set up without the wizard once you know what you'redoing, as it's nothing more than a Word table with the items in the HeadingRow of the table representing the mail merge fields– although you may well need to use Normal View to view all the data in thetable if you don't want the columns to be incredibly narrow. Some experiencedusers prefer to use the wizard for this reason.

Open Data Source

Lets you browse to and open a Word,Excel, Access(or any supported database) or text fileData Source.

Use Address Book

Use an Outlook orOutlookExpress address book as the Data Source. (It can also link up to an Exchange*.pab and a Schedule+ Contacts list).

Header Options

If a Data Source from another program does not contain a Heading Row, or if field names in the Heading Row of your Data Source do not match the merge fields in your Main Document, you can use a separate Header Source and specify the field names.
	Field names must be listed in the same order as the corresponding information in the Data Source.
	Field names in the Header Source must match any merge fields you've inserted in the Main Document.
However, where possible, build the Heading Row into yourMail Merge Data Source rather than having a separate Header Source– it simply makes life easier. Note that if your Data Source doescontain a Header row, and if you nevertheless use a separate Header Source,the Header Row within the Data Source will be treated as a mail merge record –so be careful.

5.	Select Edit Main Document. Add all text that you want to appear with every record; and insert the appropriate merge fields using theInsert Merge Field button on the Mail Merge Toolbar.

You can use as few or as many of the data fields as you need to, and you can use them in any order. Also, any field can be used more thanonce.

In a catalog merge, this text will appear with each record. If you want text to appear either before or after all records, it's best to add this to the completed merged document.

6.	You will want to add appropriate punctuation and spaces between the merge fields.

Although blank paragraphs are suppressed automatically when you merge, spaces withina paragraph are not.

Frequently (for instance, in an address) you will want to suppress spacesand punctuationfollowing a field if the field is blank – for example, if you have“«Street, «City»”, then if there is no streetin a given address, youwon't want the comma and space to display.

You can achieve thisflexibility by using IF fields. See: Making your mail merge“intelligent” by using IF fields.

7.	As well asthe obvious places, such as the address, you may also want to add mail merge fields atstrategic points in the mainbody of the document – “«so-and-so» will be contacting you”, etc..

Frequently, you may want to make the results that aredisplayed dependant on a condition. For example, you may want to display “he” or“she”, depending on gender; or you might want todisplay either: “please let us know your start date”, or“youwill commence employment on 01 January 2001”, depending on whether thestart date is known.

Again, see: Making your mail merge“intelligent”by using IF fieldsfor details of how to do this.

You can preview your data prior to performing the merge byclicking the ViewMergedData button on the mail merge toolbar. Doingthis is far quicker than actually merging, if the Data Source isreasonably large.

You can skip though the records by pressing the Nextand Previous buttons.

[You can also go to aspecific record using the Findbutton (binoculars). This works fine under Word 2000 but can cause problems ifyou are using Word 97 – see: Why is mail merge unavailable after using the Find Record feature in Word 97? [Lene Fredborg, 10-Jan-2020: Removed outdated link to http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/].

Having proof-read it in this way, youcan merge straight to the printer if you want to, without having tocreate a merged document first.

A couple of minor “gotchas”with using ViewMergedData:
	Blank paragraphs are notsuppressed until you do the merge. However, if you have the ShowAllbutton on, you will see a " symbol to indicate a paragraph that isgoing to be suppressed, instead of the usual ¶ symbol for a normal paragraph.
	Fields based on the total number of pages tend not towork as expected following a merge (e.g. Page X of Y), but this usually won't beapparent until you do a full merge.

9.	You may well need to filter the records, in order tomerge only to a subset of your Data Source. You may also want to change thesort order for the merge without affecting the sort order of the Data Source. To do this, you canuse Mail Merge Query Options

For instance, you may be doing a follow-up mailshot to thosepeople who didn't reply to the original mailshot. Or you may want to send aletter only to people whose birthday is this week.

For details of how todo this, see: Turning Word into a pseudo-database by usingMail Merge Query Options.

10.

Prior to performing the merge, hold <Shift> and then select File/Save All.This will save the Mail Merge Main Document; and if the Data Source is a Worddocument, it will save that too.

For additional formatting techniques, tips and tricks, and special merges such as setting up an Address Book, phone lists, merging graphics, suppressing duplicates, One-to-Many Relationships,see the Mail Merge home page on this site.

11.	Perform the merge. Merge choices are:
		Merge to New Document
		Merge to Printer
		Merge to Email
		Merge to Electronic Fax

For large mail merges, merging straight to the printergenerally works better and is much faster than merging to a new documentand printing that.

If merging to Email or Electronic Fax, click the Setupbutton on the Merge dialog when you're ready to merge. Then selectthe Data field which contains the email address or fax number, type thesubject line; and in the case of Email, choose whether or not you wantthe document to be sent as an attachment. Finally, you may also want touse Query Options to filter out anyrecords that don't contain an email address/fax number.

2. General mail merge FAQ

Question

Solution

Page numbering doesn't restart with each record in completed merge.

1.	Go into the Header or Footer.
2.	On the Header/Footer toolbar, click the FormatPage Number button:
3.	Click Start At and enter the desired value.
4.	Click OK to close the dialog.

How do I amend, add or remove mail merge fields?

Select Edit Data Source on Mail Merge Toolbar

If the Data Source is an Excel spreadsheet orAccess database, this will open it (or switch to it, if it's already open).

Ifthe Data Source is a Word document, the Data Form dialog will now appear.Click the View Source button to open the Data Source.

To amend a field, edit it in the Heading Row; toadd a field, add a column to the table; to remove a field, delete the relevantcolumn.

Alternatively, if the Data Source is a Word Document,you can select Manage Fields on the Database Toolbar.

This makes life a bit simpler, especially if it's your first time. Thensave and Close the Data Source.

My email addresses aren't inserted as hyperlinks in the completed merge.

1.	Select Format/AutoFormat and thenOptions
2.	Turn off all formatting options that you do not want,but ensure that Internet and network paths as hyperlinks is turned on.

Mergeto electronic fax option missing

Followthis link

How do I get an image such as our company logo into my mail merge labels?

Assuming you want the same picture in every label, just insert it inlineinto every table cell in the mail merge Main Document.

If you don't want the logo to print for cells where there is no data (so youcan avoid wasting labels), you can use a combination of an IFfield and an INCLUDEPICTURE field:

{ IF { MERGEFIELD FirstName } <> "" { INCLUDEPICTURE"C:\\Temp\\Logo.tif" \d \* MERGEFORMAT } "" }

You could also create an AutoText entry for the image or for theIncludePicture field. To use it, in the Label Setup dialog box, sample labeltext area, type the name for the AutoText entry and press <F3> to insertit.

Or you could create a label templatewith the image or field already included.