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Using Mail Merge in Microsoft Word 2002 and 2003

Written by Ian Fraser

The mail merge feature allows you to send information to any number of people quickly from reaching customers with newsletters, to pulling together cover letters and resumes for your job search, to sending out holiday greetings to friends and family.

Use the Mail Merge Wizard to create form letters, mailing labels, envelopes, directories, and mass e-mail and fax distributions.

How to mail merge:

The mail merge wizard is a six step process.  Choose tools, letters and mailings and then mail merge from the main menu to start the mail merge.

Step 1
The first step to the Mail Merge is specifying the type of document to be created. The options that become available will vary depending on what type of document is requested.

Step 2
The starting document is the document that will be used for the layout of the mail merge document.

There are three options to choose from:

1. Use the current document – will use the document currently open on the screen as the main document.
2. Change document layout – allows a new document to be used for the mail merge based on existing templates, which can be modified to suit.
3. Start from an existing document – enables the user to open a previously saved mail merge document.

Step 3
This step is used to nominate the list of people who will get the letter. This separate file can be a table within a Word document, an Excel spreadsheet, an Access database or a contact list within Outlook.

The options for selecting the recipients include:

• Use an existing list – Use an existing list of names and addresses for the mail merge. This is the best method. Create the list in Excel if you do not have one already.
• Select from Outlook Contacts – Chose recipients from the contacts list in Outlook
• Type a new list – Create a new list of recipients. If creating a list of recipients from scratch, Word stores the data as a simple database file and entires can be easily added or managed using the data form (Mail Merge Recipient dialog box).

The Mail Merge Recipient dialog box displays the data in a simple column format. The dialog box is designed to assist uses in sorting and filtering their data during the mail merge process

Step 4
Once the data source has been finalised, the next step is to prepare the letter that will be going to the recipients. The task pane lists a number of items that can be inserted into the document. Choose the More items option and to add the data fields from the data source to the document.

Tip: Customise your standard toolbar to include the Insert Merge Field toolbar button which will simplify the process of inserting fields into your document. The button can be found in the customise toolbars dialog box.

Access the customise dialog box by choosing customise from the tools menu and then clicking on the command tab. Drag this button to your standard toolbar.

Step 5
This step enables the document to be viewed with the recipient information entered into the document. Final changes can be made to the letter. Use the navigation buttons in the task pane to view the letter created for each data record.

Step 6
Once satisfied with the preview of the merge documents, the mail merge process can be completed.There are two options available:

1. Print – Selecting Print will send the letters directly to the printer. (not recommended)
2. Edit individual letters – A new document will be created, and each page will be an individual letter. This document can be saved for printing later.