Using Mail Merge in MS Office 2007
A How-to Tutorial for Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Word
Inserting data repeatedly from a list into a form letter? Microsoft Office automates this task using Mail Merge. Use Help and powerful Wizards to make the job even easier
There are countless situations in which users would want to use the “Mail Merge” facility in MS Office 2007. For example, to create a flyer to be sent to customers’ homes with this month’s specials, users may wish to make the flyer more personal and require each customers’ information to be inserted on the flyer, while the main text remains fixed. There’s no need to laboriously type up each customer data separately on individual flyers. Mail Merge is a time-saving device in Microsoft Office 2007 that precisely automates this task.
Mail Merge is now Easy
Mail Merge has been available in Microsoft Office over many versions of development, albeit the early versions were not very user-friendly and only available in Word. Today, MS Office 2007 makes the task simple and easy to use, and includes Publisher as well as Word. Both of these software packages adopt a similar style of mail merging, and the look-an-feel wizards are basically the same. Only minor differences exist, but if one can perform this function in one of the software, then it becomes familiar and easy to work out in the other software.
The first step to learning a new function is to seek Help by pressing the F1 key. When the Help window opens, type in your query “mail merge” and when the results return, choose the link that contains mail merge to create and print a letter or document.
The Process
Word Help has a description of the mail merge process, which is given in summary below:
- Set up the main document (fixed text)
- Connect the document to a data source (a list of your customers)
- Refine the list of recipients or items
- Add placeholders, called mail merge fields, to the document
- Preview and complete the merge (ready to auto print all flyers)
Open the Task Pane
You may access a mail merge task pane, which is a wizard to help you complete what you need to do. Follow the instructions in the table below for the particular software you use.
In Word:
- Select the Mailings tab
- Click Start Mail Merge
- Click Step-by-Step Mail Merge Wizard
In Publisher:
- Click the Tools menu
- Point to Mailings and Catalog
- Click Mail Merge
Follow the Instructions
Once the task pane is open, select the Wizard options and click through all steps, which lead you through the above mail merge process. If you selected “Use an existing list”, you will need to have set up your customers in an Excel file or Access database in advance. Alternatively, you can select “Type in a customer list” and the software will create a database for you to type in and store your data.
Conclusion
Users wishing to automate repetitive tasks of typing data on a fixed text document can use the mail merge facility in MS Office 2007. In particular, this time-saving device is available in MS Publisher and MS Word. Making use of Help and powerful wizards makes the job easy.
Users can find out more from Microsoft Office Online about how to use mail merge in MS Word 2007 for printing letters and also printing labels.
