MAILE MERGE

1. HOW TO MAIL MERGE
AN INFORMATIVE SLIDESHOW PRESENTATION…..

2. WHAT IS MAIL MERGING?
Mail merging is when you combine a data set (The recipients
of your letter) with a readily - typed letter that you can use as
a templete for all of your recipients.

3. HOW IS MAIL MERGE USEFUL?
Mail merge is useful if you need to send
a large number of letters to, say, clients
of your business. It removes the hassle
of having to type an individual letter to
each and every recipient.
Instead, when you mail merge, you insert
a specific list of information from a
database, like a list of names or
addresses, into specified places in your
template letter and then MS Word will
take care of the rest.

4. Select “LETTERS AND MAILINGS” from the tools
menu. From there choose “MAIL MERGE WIZARD”

5. The following
dialogue box should
appear on the right
hand side of your
screen, as shown…

6. Leave the cicle marked
with “LETTERS”
Click on the
“NEXT:
STARTING
DOCUMENT”
button to
proceed to the
next stage

7. In this next dialogue box
you have three options…
“USE THE CURRENT
DOCUMENT”, which merges
the document that you have
open in front of you with your
list of recepients
“START FROM A TEMPLATE” which lets
you start from a ready-to-use mail merge
template that can be customised to suit
your needs
And “START FROM EXISTING
DOCUMENT” which lets you take an
existing mail merge that you may have
already started on and continue to work on
it

8. Choose the one that you wish and
click on the “NEXT: SELECT
RECEPIENTS” button to proceed to
the next stage

9. For this example we will
use the option “USE
THE CURRENT
DOCUMENT” and use a
letter that has been
previously typed as a
template. We will use
the example of the letter
shown at left
Note the words
within the
arrowheads (< >)
on either side of
them. These are
the places where
you will enter the
specific information
from your database
or list of recipients.

10. The following
dialogue box will
appear which lets
us select where we
want our list of
recipients to come
from. We have
three options…
“USE AN EXISTING
LIST” which takes names
and addresses from a file
or database
“SELECT FROM
OUTLOOK
CONTACTS” in
which we can take
names and
addresses from
Outlook Express’
contacts folder
“TYPE A NEW LIST”
where we can manually
type and create a list of
recipients. This is useful if
you don’t have your list of
recipients handy on a
database or file or if you
only have them on paper

11. For this example we will use the
“USE AN EXISTING LIST”
option
Next we must import a list of
contacts from a file or database
on our computer. To do this, click
on the blue “BROWSE…” button
If you are selecting one of the
other options and you need to
import or create a list of recipients
all you have to do is click on the
blue button that comes up in place
of “BROWSE” – either a
“CHOOSE CONTACTS FOLDER”
in the case of Outlook, or
“CREATE” if you are creating a
new list

12. Once you have clicked the “BROWSE” button the
following window, shown above, should appear. Now you
can browse through your computer’s files and select the
database or file with your list of recipients in it

13. An example of a recipient list is shown above.
The tick boxes on the far left allow you to
decide which of the recipients in the list
receive your letter
If you do not want
someone to
receive the letter
simply uncheck the
box corresponding
with their name, as
shown

14. Once you have selected your list the
following dialogue box will appear on the
right hand side of your screen. It displays a
number of options and changes you can
make to your list. These options are
highlighted in blue
You can either edit the
current list of recepients
Or you can upload an entirely
different list if you find the list
you currently have selected is
the wrong one
Once you are happy with the list you
have selected click on the “NEXT:
WRITE YOUR LETTER” button

15. We are now
given a couple
of options on the
right hand side
of our screen.
These include
“ADDRESS
BLOCK…”
“GREETING
LINE…” and
“ELECTRONIC
POSTAGE”
We don’t have to
worry about
these three. We
only need the
“MORE
ITEMS…” option

16. Now we will insert the specific data from the file or database that
you have selected by clicking on the “MORE ITEMS…” button

17. To use this option you
must first highlight the
word where you want
to insert your specific
database information,
and then click on the
“MORE ITEMS”
buttons
You must then select
the appropriate field
that corresponds with
the word you
highlighted from the
little box that pops up,
as shown on the right
Once you have done this click “INSERT”. To comfirm that the field was
merged successfully these symbols ({{ }}) will appear on either side of the
word. Do this for all of your specific fields (ie Box No, City, ect. in the
example above)

18. Once you have merged all your fields click on the “NEXT:
PREVIEW YOUR LETTERS” button to go to the next stage

19. Now you can preview your letters
by clicking on the [<<] [>>] arrow
buttons
Once you are happy that
everything is correct click on the
“NEXT:COMPLETE THE MERGE”
button to proceed to the final stage

20. Now all you have to do is click on the
“PRINT…” button and select your printer,
and all of your merged letters will be printed
out for you