Word: Mailing Lists and Mail Merge
Word: Mailing Lists and Mail Merge
Text Conventions
A number of conventions are used to help you to be clear about what you need to do
in each step of a task.
In general, the word press indicates you need to press a key on the keyboard.
Click, choose or select refer to using the mouse and clicking on items on
the screen. If you have more than one mouse button, click usually refers to the
left button unless stated otherwise.
Names of keys on the keyboard, for example the Enter (or Return) key are
shown like this ENTER.
Multiple key names linked by a + (for example, CTRL+Z) indicate that the first
key should be held down while the remaining keys are pressed; all keys can
then be released together.
Words and commands typed in by the user are shown like this.
Labels and titles on the screen are shown l i k e t his .
Drop-down menu options are indicated by the name of the options separated
by a vertical bar, for example Fi l e| Pri nt . In this example you need to select
the option P r i nt from the Fi l e menu or tab. To do this, click when the mouse
pointer is on the Fi l e menu or tab name; move the pointer to Pri n t ; when
P r i n t is highlighted, click the mouse button again.
A button to be clicked will look l i k e t hi s .
The names of software packages are identified like this, and the names of files
to be used l i k e t hi s .
ii IT Learning Programme
Word: Mailing lists and Mail Merge TRWL
Software used
Word 2013
Windows 7
Files used
D el e g at e Na m es Spreadsheet
E v en ts Database
1 0 0 Na m es Excel
A p p oi n t me n ts L et ter Word
A p p oi n t me n ts Li s t Excel
C re a ti v e C our s es Le tte r Word
C re a ti v e C our s es St u de n t B o ok i n gs Excel
J al es C o mp ut er C us tom e r s Word
J al es C o mp ut er S up pl ie r s I nv oi c e Word
Revision information
Version Date Author Changes made
1.0 February 2013 Jean Glendinning Created
1.1 October 2014 Traci Huggins Formatted
2.0 July 2015 Traci Huggins Office 2013
Copyright
Traci Huggins makes this document available under a Creative Commons licence:
Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives. Individual resources are subject to
their own licencing conditions as listed.
The Oxford University logo and crest is copyright of Oxford University and may only
be used by Oxford University members in accordance with the University’s branding
guidelines.
Contents
1 Introduction ............................................................................. 1
1.1. Topics.................................................................................................. 1
1.2. Related courses .................................................................................. 1
2 What is mail merge? ................................................................ 2
2.1. How does it work?.............................................................................. 2
2.2. What is a list? .................................................................................... 2
2.3. What kind of document can be used? ............................................... 2
3 Step by step instructions ......................................................... 3
3.1. Create the data file or list ................................................................... 3
3.2. Next: create the letter ........................................................................ 3
3.3. Starting the mail merge ..................................................................... 4
3.4. Final step: merge the files ................................................................. 8
4 Variations on the basic merge .................................................9
4.1. Filtering records ................................................................................. 9
4.2. Repeating a merge ............................................................................ 11
4.3. Adding to the data set ....................................................................... 11
5 Merging to labels ................................................................... 13
6 Merging to email.................................................................... 15
7 Merging with other sources ................................................... 17
7.1. Merging with Excel .......................................................................... 17
7.2. Merging with Access ........................................................................ 18
8 Creating a Directory using Mail Merge ................................. 19
9 Exercises ................................................................................24
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Word: Mailing lists and Mail Merge
1 Introduction
One of the most useful things to be able to do with a word processor is to be able to
do Mail merge. This course takes you through the various options with suggestions
on how to make the most of this facility.
The course will start with a demonstration of techniques accompanied by practical
hands on activities. The second part of the course will be workshop based with
participants encouraged to bring examples of their own problems for solving.
1.1. Topics
Creating Labels
Multiple Letters
Linking to Excel or Access
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The most common example people see is on junk mail that comes to you either
through the post or via email. We are not going to encourage you to create Junk
mail however – but to learn to use a useful tool which can speed up your daily
processes as long as you remember to use it!
Items one and two can be created in any order but the magic happens when you
combine them.
a table in Word
an Excel spreadsheet or
a table or query from a database
Of course there are a few details about each of these that you have to be careful
about but essentially any one of them can be used. When you create a mail merge
the columns headings are used to identify the information that will be placed in the
document. Remember that it is not necessary to have anything else other than the
headings at the top of the file.
A letter
Labels
An email
A long report
An invoice
One thing to remember about these documents is that they can be used over and
over again; sometimes by using the same list of people or items and sometimes with
a different list. When you have mastered the technique you will find all sorts of
ways to use it. Once a document has been set up to be a Mail merge file it will
continue to be one, automatically linked to the data file you selected.
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In the top row we are going to put the labels for the list, then the details to be merged.
Note: please make sure that when you are typing up information to be used during a
Mail Merge that you make sure that you leave no blank lines/spaces at the top of the
document. If you do when you load the recipients then Word will expect the first data
to be at the top of the page, if it isn’t then Word will state that there is no data to
merge!
Create something that looks like the letter below see figure 2.
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Word: Mailing lists and Mail Merge
You can see that the letter doesn’t make a lot of sense – yet – we need to add the codes
from the dataset in the places where we want the information.
Once the letter and recipients list has been created you will then need to start the Mail
merge process.
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Next you need to choose letters – you can see from figure 4 that you have the option of
creating email messages, envelopes, labels and directory mail merge.
Next step is to Select Recipients, this then gives you the option to either choose a list
(data source) that has already been created, type a new list or use your Outlook Contacts
for email Mail Merge, see figure 5.
In this instance you will be using an Existing List which you will need to navigate to the
student files on the H:/ Drive – the teacher will instruct you where to locate these.
When you have done this you should notice that more of the buttons on the M ai l i ngs
ribbon are available and are no longer greyed out.
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Word: Mailing lists and Mail Merge
With your letter open next position your cursor where you want to place the
information in the letter.
Click on the Fi r s t _N a me field. This places a code into the document. (Making sure that
you remove <<Fname>> and <<Surname>> otherwise they will appear on your
merged document.)
Type a space – if you do not type a space then all the words will just run into each
other.
Next move down to <<Dept>> then add the De p t field name in the same way
Move the cursor to the next position, just after the word Dear, and then insert the
Fi rs t _N a m e field again. (You can use the fields more than once in the same document)
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The codes are shown highlighted in this example this can be turned on or off
using the button on the toolbar. It makes it easier for you to see where the
codes have been placed.
When the document is in this state you can preview what the merged information will
look like before you Fi nis h & Mer g e .
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When you choose this option you are then asked if you want to merge all records or a
selection. Merge all for now and the programme creates another file called L e t ters 1
which contains the combined data.
You can now check the final document and go ahead and print it if that is to be the final
output.
I think it is always a good idea to check by doing this final merge – even if you are going
to output it to an email. It gives you the opportunity to see what will be sent prior to
dispatch. As well as give you the opportunity to correct any errors that might be in the
document before it is merged and ready to be sent/printed.
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Sometimes you may have a large dataset and only want to use some of the
records within it. It is possible to make a selection from within Mail merge.
On our example letter we want to send the letters only to the CSS Essentials
Class. Click E di t R ec i pie n t Li s t and the dialogue box showing the data will
appear.
The list we are using is very short so the quickest way of selecting is to use the tick boxes.
But we can also use the filter selection to make selections according to the fields or other
criteria.
Clicking the Fi l ter option on the dialog box brings the Q u ery O p ti o ns Dialog box up.
This has two tabs one for Filtering and one for Sorting. The Fi l ter one allows you to set
criteria for each field that is in the data set (even if it is not being used in the mail merge
document)
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You should get the three people who are enrolled on the course. The filter will
stay with the document, so remember to clear the query criteria if you want to
merge to all of the records again. The Cl e ar al l button is at the bottom of the
Q u ery O p ti o ns dialog box.
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The new column headings should be called “Equipment” and “Lunch” then add the
following text for each of the courses, Knitting for beginners, Basic bread making and
Introduction to Stained Glass.
S a v e the file. Now we can use the updated file in our letter.
O p en the I T C our s e L e tt er s St u d en ts . When you do this you will get a message that
is telling you that the document in is a mail merge document and it has links with a
data file. Click y es as you want to continue with this process.
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Word: Mailing lists and Mail Merge
Figure 15: Reopening up a letter which has already been used for Mail Merge
When the document is open change the data in the letter to show information about
equipment and lunch so that it looks like the example below.
When you merge the document now you will see the extra paragraphs added onto
the letter.
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5 Merging to labels
The process for merging to Labels is the same as for letters – the difference is the
document that you use. Basically the document is set up as a table and the details are
merged to individual cells in a table.
Start with a blank document and choose S ta r t M ai l M er ge choose the l a bel s option.
At this point you will be asked what type of label you want to use. This is usually found
on the box of labels and you should be able to pick from a drop down list to find the
correct size.
It is possible to create your own template as well though. If you choose the D e t ail s
button you can see the different measurements available to adjust.
This is useful if you need to tweak the settings.
When you have chosen the label size you will return to the main document. At this
point you may be able to see the table layout – but if not click on the
T a bl e To ol s | L ay ou t ribbon and select the Vi ew G ri dl i n es button
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Next you need to choose your data source. Click the S el ec t R ec i pi e nts button and
select Us e Ex i s ti ng Li s t . Navigate to the data source. In this case we’ll use the same
one as before S t u de n tNa m es .
The document will then look a bit like this; each cell apart from the first one has a
N ex t R ec o r d field code in it.
In the first cell you need to add the merge fields for the information that you require
to appear on the labels. Use the I ns ert M erg e fi el d button to place the codes into
the Label document. This is the same procedure as in part 3.2 above.
Now you need to copy the merge fields that are in the first cell into
all of the other cells of the table. Click the U pd a te L ab el s button
and this is all done for you.
Now you can proceed with the merge. Remember it is a good idea to Pr ev ie w the
document before merging it and to use M er g e to p ri nt – so you can check what the
output will be like before printing on the labels.
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6 Merging to email
Merging to email is very similar to merging to a document. It is frighteningly fast and
my advice is to merge one record to your own email and use that as the practice run.
That way you can see what you will be sending out. Otherwise when you press the
M e rg e t o e m ail button you don’t get the opportunity to change your mind or check
what you have sent!
Edit the S t u de nt N a mes file to have another column and add the email addresses as
shown.
Add yourself as a test record at the bottom, include your real email address. S a v e the
file
Set up the merge document as previously - only this time choose S t art Mai l M erg e |
E m ai l mes s a g e . You might notice that the view of your document changes slightly at
this point. It goes from P r i n t L ay o u t to Dra ft (check the buttons at
the bottom left of your screen.
Link to the data set using the S el ec t R ec i pi e nts Button, use the same data file as we
have previously S t ud e ntN a m es (we will have to add another field to this which
contains the email addresses). It is worth noting at this point that it is possible to link
to an Outlook Contacts list.
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Word: Mailing lists and Mail Merge
The M er g e to e - mai l dialog box appears. Click and select the E m ail field from the
drop down box by the T o : option.
Type Course Confirmation in the S u bj ec t line and then click the Fr om radio button
and type 5 To 5.
As the record with your own details in is the fifth one in our example dataset it should
go to your own email address and you can check to see if it is OK before you send out
all of the emails.
When you click O K on this screen you just go back to the Mail merge document, there
is no feedback to say that the messages have gone.
But if you check in you inbox you will hopefully find your test message there.
If you are happy with it, then proceed with the whole lot.
Merging to email is a very powerful tool. The good thing about it is that each person is
getting an individual message so you are not spreading everyone’s email addresses
across the ether, nor do you have to use the BCC field in the email.
The danger is that you send something to lots of people without checking accuracy
beforehand.
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Word: Mailing lists and Mail Merge
Prepare the main merge document as normal. This will work with all of the different
merge types. To save you creating something from scratch use the Word file
F e ed b ac k F or m . doc x to merge with the data.
When you select the data source, click the Us e Ex i s ti n g Li s t as before. This time
navigate to the Excel data source called D el e g at eN a m es (it is basically the same data
as in the student names file– but held in Excel).
Figure 25: Choosing a data sheet for merging data from Excel
When you select the file the S el ec t T abl e dialog box appears. You need to pick the
sheet that has the data on it before you proceed. In this case the data is held on
S h e e t1 so just click O K .
You are returned to the main mail merge document and can proceed as before. Insert
the merge fields onto the Feedback form as below.
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Word: Mailing lists and Mail Merge
This time set up the merge document to be labels using the settings shown here. We
could do this with any type of merge documents – but this is to help you practise.
When you have chosen the document type – we need to link it to the data file. I this
case it will be to a query within the Access database that has drawn together all of the
fields we want to use.
Click the S el ec t Rec i pie n ts dialog box and choose the Access database E v en ts
In the same way as in Excel the programme will ask which element of the programme
you want to link to.
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Word: Mailing lists and Mail Merge
Open a blank word document then Select Mailings from the Ribbon next select start
Mail Merge.
When you click on Start Mail Merge choose Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard.
You will then notice that you have a Mail Merge menu appear on the right hand side –
see screen print below;
From this menu you will need to select Directory, this is situated on the right hand
side at the top.
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Next you need to click on Next: Starting Document – situated at the bottom of the
page.
You are going to use the blank document that you have opened, so at this point you need
to select Use the current Document.
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Make sure that use an existing list has been selected and then click Browse and locate the
file 100names.
At this point you can edit the recipient list if you do not want certain people to be in your
directory (we are not going to do this at this point).
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Select FirstName and click OK, this will then appear on your Word Document, leave a
space then Click on More items and choose LastName and click OK. Hit enter before
you insert the company name underneath the FirstName and LastName as shown below.
Note: Make sure that you leave a clear line space after the inserted field Company (if you
don’t leave a clear line space when you merge the data into the document they will just
flow into each other as one continuous paragraph!)
Click Next: Preview your directory from the bottom of the page
You will then see the following merged fields added to your page – to show you how they
will be displayed once all the data has been merged into the document.
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You will now see that your directory has been completed.
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Word: Mailing lists and Mail Merge
9 Exercises
The following exercises will guide you through working with Mail Merge and allow you to
practice the process using different ways
Task 1 Step 1
Create a data file for Mail Merge Open Word
Create a table with three columns and seven rows
Insert the following data into the table
Task 3 Step 1
Merging the data with the letter Keeping the letter on screen, click the M ai li n gs tab.
Click on the S t ar t M ai l M e rg e button and select L e t ters .
Click on the S el ec t R ec i pi e nts button and choose U s e
E x i s ti n g Li s t .
Click on the file M e r ge Pe o pl e and then O p e n .
Now click on the Ins er t M e rg e Fi el d button and insert the
N a m e field. Hit return to start a new line and repeat for
A d d res s and Ci ty .
Click on P rev i e w R es ul ts to ensure that the merge was
successful. You can use the arrows to check each merge
individually.
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We are now going to merge all the letters so that they form a
separate document. Click on the Fi ni s h & Mer g e button and
select E di t I n di v i du al Do c u m e nts .
Click Al l and then O K .
Notice on screen a third document called L e tt ers 1 . This is the
completed merge – you should have six letters.
16. Save the document to your folder with the filename
M e rg e d Le tt ers .
Now repeat this exercise once again using the same address list,
but creating a new letter with a different filename.
S a v e and Cl os e all your merge documents.
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Word: Mailing lists and Mail Merge
We are going to create a table that you can use as a template for an Invoice Report. Later on we will
be using this same table to merge from a list of client details.
Task 1 Step 1
Create a data file for Mail Merge Open a new blank Word document.
On the ribbon click on the I n s e rt tab and create a T a bl e like
the one shown below.
Create the following placing text into the table using the same
layout – be sure to place words in the same rows.
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Task 1 Step 1
Create a data file for Mail Merge Open a blank new Word document.
Change the page orientation to landscape using Pa g e L ay o ut |
O r i e n ta ti o n .
Create a table with 7 columns and 6 rows.
(if you want to be adventurous you could do this in an Excel
spreadsheet)
Working in row 1, add the headings going horizontally across
the table.
Invoice Number, Invoice Date, Client Name, Client
address, Date of work, Description of work, Price
of Work
Don’t worry if the words overlap. The data entry will look
strange and some of the columns may start dropping off the
right hand edge of the page. To alter this, highlight the entire
table. Right‐Click and select Di s tri b u te C ol u m ns E v e nl y .
S a v e the file with the filename R e p o rt d at a .
Type in five example clients with their corresponding work
done and prices etc.
S a v e and Cl os e the file R e p ort d at a .
O p en the I nv oi c e Re p ort table.
Click the M ai li ngs tab.
Click on the S t ar t M ai l M e rg e button and select L e t ters .
Click on the S el ec t R ec i pi e nts button and choose
R e p ort D at a .
Click on the file M e r ge Ad d and then O p e n .
Now click on the Ins er t M e rg e Fi el d button and insert
I nv oi c e _N u mb er . Repeat this process until all merge fields are
in the corresponding cells of the report table.
Click on P rev i e w R es ul ts to ensure that the merge was
successful. You can use the arrows to check each merge
individually.
We are now going to merge all the records so that they form a
separate document. Click on the Fi ni s h & Mer g e button and
select E di t I n di v i du al Do c u m e nts …
Tick Al l and click O K .
Notice on screen a third document called L e tt ers 1 . This is the
completed merge – you should have five letters.
S a v e the document to your folder with the filename
M e rg e dI nv oi c es .
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Word: Mailing lists and Mail Merge
Click O pe n .
Click P ri n t [Shortcut: C trl + P ]. From the P a g e Ra n g e section,
type in the page number 3 – 4 , hyphen to print out only record
3 and 4
Click P ri n t Pr ev i e w (or Print if you want a hard copy).
S a v e and Cl os e the document.
We are going to create a table that you can use as a template for an Invoice Report. Later on we will
be using this same table to merge from a list of client details.
Task 1 Step 1
You work in a busy office where you hold regular events and
have to provide:
name tags,
joining letters,
a list of people attending.
A few days before the event you would like to send a
reminder email to delegates.
All of these things can be easily done through Mail merge.
Use the data in the Excel spread sheet to create all of these
items
Hint:
Use the table opposite below to name tags, Labels
help you. joining letters, Letter
a list of people attending. Directory
a reminder email to email
delegates.
Step 2
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Use the following files to create a range of different Mail Merged documents..
Task 1 Step 1
Create an Invoice Use the following files to send out invoices for Jales Computer
Suppliers;
Task 2 Step 1
Create a letter to send out to Use the following files to create and send out letters to students for a
students for courses computer courses;
Creative Courses Letter for Registration
Creative Courses Student Bookings (Data File)
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