imagine for a moment that you're a
teacher and you need to send each
student's parents a letter about what
the students need to bring with them the
first day of school and what's classroom
to go to you want it to be personalized
but you don't have the time to change
the letter for each person the mail
merge tool will help you with this job
on the ribbon
left click mailings to select it click
the start mail merge command you'll see
a list where you can choose a type of
document you'll be working with or you
can select the step-by-step mail merge
wizard until you are really familiar
with mail merge I recommend using the
wizard I'm pretty proficient with word
and I still use the wizard myself so
we'll just select it and the mail merge
task pane opens on the right
this pane will take a step by step
through the process the first step is to
choose what type of document we're going
to create you can see here the other
types of documents we can use mail merge
for mail merge is used a lot to create
envelopes and labels we've already
decided we're creating letters and
that's chosen by default so we'll leave
it as it is click Next to move to the
next step in step 2 of the mail merge
process we need to decide whether to use
the current document as our letter a
template or an existing document we are
going to use the current document if you
decide to use a template or an existing
document word will guide you through the
process let's move on to the next step
now we have to decide who the recipients
are and whether we are going to use an
existing list pull from our Outlook
contacts or create a new list existing
list is chosen by default if you want to
use an existing spreadsheet or database
with information you can click browse
and then locate that file on your
computer
if not you may want to create it in Word
to do this just select type a new list
and then click create we're given a form
with multiple fields we're going to
complete one of these forms for each
students but we need to look at our
fields so let's choose customize I can
see immediately that I have some fields
that I don't need for this letter so I
can delete them if I want all I need to
do is select the field and then choose
delete
I can continue doing this until I have
deleted all the fields that I don't need
now I also need to add a few fields and
the letter I'm writing to the parents I
want to refer to their child by name so
I'll click add and in a dialog box type
student and then click OK
I need to mention the classroom number
they need to go to so I'll add that as a
field
we now have a field for each piece of
information that we're going to need to
create our letter click OK and now begin
filling in the form under title I'm
going to put mr. and the first and last
name I'm going to enter a parent's first
and last name
now you're going to create a form for
each individual student this may take a
little bit of time but in the long run
it's going to save you some time you can
move from one field to the next by
clicking the tab key you can also point
and click if you need to make
corrections when you've completed one
entry click on new entry and now you get
another blank form continue completing
these forms until you've created one for
everyone on your list
once you've entered all of your
information click okay now you're asked
to save your data list give it a name
and a location just like you save any
other file at this point I think we're
ready to move on so click OK
now you can see that we have the option
to edit our recipient list but I don't
need to do that so we're ready to move
on to the next step
writing our letter just click the next
link remember that we're going to create
a form letter and let mailmerge fill in
all of our students names so we're going
to need to put in a placeholder each
time we need to insert something from
our data list I just need to place my
insertion point where I want the
information to appear mail merge gives
you tools to use to pull information
from your data source for example and
our letter we're going to need to create
an address block here now I can select
address block and open a new dialog box
to format the address block I can choose
how I want the name and address to
appear and then view it in the preview
window
when I'm happy with the way it looks I
can just click ok and the address block
placeholder will appear in the document
let's move on down to where I want the
greeting to appear now I'm going to
click the greeting line link in the task
pane a dialog box appears and I can use
the drop down menus to select how I want
it to appear I wanted to say dear mr.
Smith or dear mr. and mrs. Smith so I'll
just select the option I need from the
menu and when I'm done I can click OK
and a placeholder appears in the
documents now in the body of the letter
I want to refer to the students by name
so let's just move to the point in the
letter where that is and place the
insertion point there so I want it right
here ok and the task pane click more
items from the dialog box choose
students and click insert now we can see
a placeholder appears in our document
where the students name will appear I
want to do the exact same thing but this
time with the room number the student
has to report to on the first day of
class so I'll place my insertion point
at the correct place in the document
that would be here and then click more
items
I'll choose classroom and then click
insert
in the task pane click on next in this
step we're going to preview our letters
notice that mail merge has now inserted
all of our student names the classroom
number and a parent's name let's take a
look at the letters by using the
previous and next buttons once you're
satisfied that your letters have merged
correctly with the data source you can
move on to the next step which is to
complete the mail merge in step 6 of the
mail merge we have a choice of printing
our letters or editing individual
letters you can use this option if you
need to add additional information to
only select letters by choosing prints
your merged documents are sent to the
printer you can choose to print either
the current one or all of them or a
specific range now we've completed a
mail merge using the wizard but if you
want to do this without a wizard you'll
find everything you need right here on
the mailing tab
as I click on these commands you'll see
that everything works the same as it did
in the wizard you can choose your list
edit your recipients insert an address
block as well as insert a greeting line
you can also insert fields the same way
that we did with a student name and room
number if you use a wizard and then
realize that you want to change
something you can always use these
commands to modify your letter and
complete your mail merge it may seem
difficult at first but the mail merge
wizard takes you step-by-step through
the process give it a try create a
letter or labels yourself those
invitations and holiday cards will be a
lot easier to address this way