Using Mail Merge to Create Form Letters and Labels

Transcription

1 Using Mail Merge to Create Form Letters and Labels 1. Open the word document on your floppy: Practice letter 2. Go to Tools > Mail Merge. The Mail Merger Helper appears. We are going to create form letters, so go to create and select form letters. 3. Now we have to make another choice: Choose Active Window, since we already have a letter to work with. 4. Next we need to tell the system from where we are going to get the names and addresses. So, go to Step 2 on the Mail Merge Helper and click on Get Data and select Create Data Source. Note: If you already have a data source, such as an Access Database or Word data source, you would select Open Data Source and browse to the source to select it. 5. The Create Data Source Box appears: Here we will choose which fields we need to use in our letter. Let s remove Title, Job Title, Company, Country, HomePhone, an WorkPhone. To to this highlight the item and click on the Remove Field Name button. When finished, click OK.

2 6. Next you will be prompted to save the data source. I suggest that you save it in the same place you keep your Word/Word Perfect documents (ie your wp_docs folder). For today s class we ll save it on the floppy disk (A drive) and use the name: Class List 7. Choice time again: Choose Edit Data Source because we need to put some data in the file Class List. 8. The Data Form will appear. This is a lot like an Access Database form. The fields that we selected are on the form and simply need to fill the form out by typing in the information. At the bottom of the form we can see how many records are entered and we can navigate among those records. You see that we can also add, delete, restore and search for records. 9. Make up a few names and addresses for your database. 10. Once we have entered all the names and addresses, click OK. 11. We have now returned to our original document. We need to let the computer know where to insert these fields so we need to edit the document and Insert Merge Fields. We will highlight each area (ie-first Name, Last Name) and replace it with the field name using the Insert Merge Field button on the top left side of the page. This is how it should look when we are finished. Note: You must enter the spaces and punctuation separately.

3 12. Now, go back to Tools Mail Merge. We are ready for step 3. First, let s examine what s under Query Options. You see that you can choose to sort the letters by last name or zip code (or by any other field we ve used in the letter). You can also filter records this is handy if you don t want the letter to go to everyone in the group. Maybe you only want it to go to certain depts., for instance. (note: if you are going to have mailing lists that need a lot of sorting and filtering, an Access database would work more efficiently). Let s leave this part alone for now and click cancel. 13. We are ready to go, so click Merge. Another screen appears to give us more choices. We can merge all the records or select to merge only items 2-3. We can also tell it to remove blank lines for blank fields (for instance, if Address 1 were empty) or to leave the blank lines in. We also have a choice as to how we want the system to report errors to us and we again have the Query Options. Let s click Merge to merge our data source with our letter. 14. Scroll down the page. You will see the same letter with the names and addresses from our data source filled in where we inserted merge fields. 15. To print the letters insert enough letterhead into the printer and hit the print icon. WHEW! There is a lot to a mail merge. But remember, once you have a data source created you can use it over and over. If you need to add/remove people choose Get Data, Open Data Source and then Edit. Also, don t forget you can use other data sources, such as Access.

4 Creating Mailing Labels 1. Return to Tools Mail Merge, except this time choose Create Mailing Labels 2. When the message appears, this time we are going to choose New Main Document because we don t want mailing labels on top of our letter. 3. This returns us to the Mail Merge Helper. We are going to use the same data source we just created, so choose Get Data Open Data Source. This should open the Open Data Source box and we should see the items located on our floppy disk. 4. Select Class List and click Open. 5. Just click on the box Set Up Main Document when you see this message. 6. Next we need to tell the system what type of labels we are using. You see we can choose brand and material number. Choose the type you are using and click OK.

5 7. Next we are going to insert the merge fields that we want on our label by choosing them from the Insert Merge Field List. Remember that you need to enter the spacing and punctuation manually. 8. Once you have the fields entered, click OK. 9. Again you are on the Mail Merge Helper and you are ready for step 3. If you want to sort your labels (perhaps by zip), use the Query Options. When you are ready, click Merge. 10. Just like with the letters, you can now choose to merge all or only a certain range or records and to print or not print the blank fields. Again, when you are ready, click Merge. 11. You will now see a print preview of your labels in the screen. If you think you will use these same labels over and over, you can save them as a separate document by going to File Save As and giving them a file name. 12. To print, enter a sheet of labels into the printer and hit the print icon.

6 Trouble Shoot Mail Merge (more available from your friendly paperclip helper just type in mail merge for your question) 1. I want to create a data source first, before I start a mail-merge document. The easiest way to create a data source in Microsoft Word is to use the Mail Merge Helper to start a main document, and then create the data source. After you've created the data source, you can delete the blank main document. 2. I get a message saying that my data file is a mail-merge main document. The data source was the active document when you chose the Mail Merge command on the Tools menu, so it was accidentally selected as the main document. Use the following procedure to remove the main-document designation. 1. Switch to the data source, and then click Mail Merge on the Tools menu. 2. Under Main document, click Create, and then click Restore to Normal Word Document. Click Close. 3. Save and then close the data source. 4. Open the document you want to use as the main document. 5. On the Tools menu, click Mail Merge. 6. Under Main document, click Create, and then click the type of main document you want to use. 7. Click Active Window. 3. Merge fields are printed instead of my data. You need to turn off the display of field codes before printing. On the Tools menu, click Options, click the Print tab, and then clear the Field codes check box. Click in the main document, and then click Merge to Printer on the Mail Merge toolbar. Note Don't print the merged documents by using the Print command on the File menu, unless you have first collected the merged documents into a new document.

7 4. Format merged data To format merged data, you must format the merge fields in the main document. Don't format the data in the data source, because its formatting isn't retained when you merge the data into the document. Tips 1. Make sure you ve already set up the main document, selected a data source, and inserted merge fields in the main document. Learn about setting up a mail merge. 2. 9In the main document, click the merge field that corresponds to the data you want to format. 3. On the Format menu, click Font, and then select the options you want. If you're creating envelopes, you can also choose the delivery address font while you're setting options on the Envelope Options tab during the mail merge. Or if you want to change the delivery address font for all envelopes you create that are based on the current template, you can modify the Envelope Address style. To control other aspects of formatting, press ALT+F9 to display field codes, and then add switches to the merge fields. For example, to display the number " " as "$34,987.89," add the Numeric Picture switch (\#). To print client names in uppercase letters, add the Format switch (\*). To ensure that the merged information has the same font and point size you apply to the merge field, you can add the \* Charformat switch.