Use mail merge for bulk email, letters, labels, and envelopes (2024)

Data sources

Your first step in setting up a mail merge is to pick the source of data you'll use for the personalized information. Excel spreadsheets and Outlook contact lists are the most common data sources, but any database that you can connect to Word will work. If you don't yet have a data source, you can even type it up in Word, as part of the mail merge process.

For details about data sources, see Data sources you can use for a mail merge.

Excel or Outlook

If you know you'll be using Excel or Outlook as the source of your data, see:

Document types

Word provides tools for incorporating your data into the following kinds of documents. Follow the links for details about each type:

Data sources

Your first step in setting up a mail merge is to pick the source of data you'll use for the personalized information. Excel spreadsheets and Outlook contact lists are the most common data sources, but if you don't yet have a data source, you can type it up in Word, as part of the mail merge process.

Document types

If you open a mail merge document that you created with the Word desktop application, Word Web App will preserve all of the mail merge settings in it, but you can’t perform a mail merge or edit any mail merge settings.

If you have the Word desktop application, open the document there and perform a mail merge there.

Use mail merge for bulk email, letters, labels, and envelopes (2024)

FAQs

Is mail merge also used to create envelopes or labels in bulk? ›

Mail Merge is a useful tool that allows you to produce multiple letters, labels, envelopes, name tags, and more using information stored in a list, database, or spreadsheet.

How do I use mail merge features for labels and envelopes? ›

Mail merge with envelopes
  1. Step 1: Set up your mailing list. ...
  2. Step 2: Test your envelope layout. ...
  3. Step 3: Start the mail merge. ...
  4. Step 4: Link your mailing list to your main document. ...
  5. Step 5: Add the address block to the envelope. ...
  6. Step 6: Preview and print the envelopes. ...
  7. Step 7: Save your mail merge envelope document.

How do you effectively use a mail merge? ›

How to mail merge from Excel to Word
  1. Create a Word document. ...
  2. Choose what kind of merge you want to run. ...
  3. Select the recipients. ...
  4. Connect Excel spreadsheet and Word document. ...
  5. Refine the recipient list. ...
  6. Add Address Block and Greeting Line. ...
  7. Insert merge fields. ...
  8. Preview the results.
Aug 24, 2023

Can you do a mail merge for labels? ›

With your address list set up in an Excel spreadsheet you can use mail merge in Word to create mailing labels. Make sure your data is mistake free and uniformly formatted. We will use a wizard menu to print your labels. Go to Mailings > Start Mail Merge > Step-by-Step Mail Merge Wizard.

How does mail merge work for labels? ›

In essence, when you mail merge labels or envelopes from Excel to Word, the column headers of your Excel sheet are transformed into mail merge fields in a Word document. A merge field can correspond to one entry such as first name, last name, city, zip code, etc.

What are the disadvantages of mail merge? ›

Disadvantages of Mailmerge
  • Moving the data file, and renaming fields, can cause the mailmerge to fail, as the word processor program won't be able to find them.
  • The database that provides the information, must be kept up to date.
  • It's unlikely that every letter produced, will be checked for errors.

What two documents are required to complete a mail merge? ›

1) Data Source - This is typically names, phone number , addresses which you want to merge. This is basically the bulk data in structured format. This could be in excel format. 2) Main Document - This is the main document or the template.

What is a mail merge short answer? ›

Mail merge entails combining mail and letters and pre-addressed envelopes or mailing labels for mass mailings from a form letter. In other words, it is the automatic addition of names and addresses from a database to letters and envelopes This feature is usually employed in a word processor.

What are the steps in creating a simple mail merge? ›

Note there are 6 steps.
  1. Step 1 – Select Document Type. 1) Click Letters for the document type.
  2. Step 2 – Select Starting Document. ...
  3. Step 3 – Select Recipients. ...
  4. Step 4 – Write Your Letter. ...
  5. Step 5 – Preview Your Letters. ...
  6. Step 6 – Complete the Merge. ...
  7. Step 1 – Select Document Type. ...
  8. Step 2 – Select Starting Document.

What are 3 things you can do with mail merge? ›

Mail merge lets you create a batch of documents that are personalized for each recipient.

What are the six steps of mail merge? ›

Microsoft Word's mail merge feature allows users to easily form letters/emails/labels from text in a document. Learn the six steps to master this feature: Select document type, start the document, select recipients, write the letter, preview the letter, and finally merge.

What is the most important steps in the mail merge process? ›

The mail merging process generally requires the following steps:
  • Creating a main document and the template.
  • Creating a data source.
  • Defining the merge fields in the main document.
  • Merging the data with the main document.
  • Saving/exporting.

Can you use mail merge to create set of labels or envelopes True or false? ›

Mail merge lets you create a batch of documents that are personalized for each recipient. For example, a form letter might be personalized to address each recipient by name.

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