You needed to send a letter or communication to multiple people, and because the address and header of the document differed from person to person, you spent hours creating each document individually. Fortunately, times have changed since then. Read this tutorial and learn how to use Word's 'Mail Merge' feature, it will do the whole task for you and save you a lot of time.
Steps
Step 1. Select the 'Mail Merge' button and choose 'Mail Merge Wizard' from the context menu that appears
Follow the steps of the wizard, they will take you through the process of creating the 'Mail Merge'.
Step 2. Choose the type of document you want to create
The document will contain information that will remain unchanged from recipient to recipient, such as the sender's address or company logo. If the document has already been created, select the 'Use current document' item. Otherwise, choose between the items 'Start from an existing document' or 'Start from a template', then select the existing document or document template to use.
Step 3. Create the connection to the data source
The information you want to 'merge' into your document can be stored in an existing data source, in your outlook contact list or in a different file type. If you don't have this information, choose the 'Create New List' item to start building your list.
Step 4. Indicate which records you want to include in your list by selecting or deselecting them from the appearing list
Step 5. Add the data fields to your document
Imagine that each 'field' corresponds to the information to be customized for each recipient of the document, for example the address to which to send the single letter. You can select the 'Other elements' item to add any specific information contained in the data source you are using to the document.
Step 6. Preview the mail merge and complete the process
Preview the result by scrolling through the list of documents and make sure there are no errors. If you wish, you can also search for a specific recipient, exclude one from the mail merge or edit the recipient list. After viewing the preview, hit the 'Next' button to complete the merge process. At this point you can print, send or save a portion or the entire document created.
Advice
- The first time you use the 'Mail Merge' process, it's easy to make a mistake. Don't be discouraged if you don't immediately reach perfection, check the steps taken more carefully and try again.
- If you do not find the 'Mail Merge' button, select the 'Tools' menu and choose the 'Letters and addresses' item. Finally select 'Mail Merge' (if you are using Word 2002 select 'Mail Merge Wizard').