how to do a mail merge in word for letters

how to do a mail merge in word for letters.

Merge letter is a feature of Microsoft Word that helps to simplify the creation of personalized letters, labels, envelopes, emails, and catalogs. Since letter merging is not among the most commonly used features in MS Word, some users may not know how to merge letters in Word to create letters, labels, and envelopes.

If you’re trying to save the time spent manually customizing each letter, label, or another document, mail merge may come in handy. Even if you’ve never tried to create a mail merge letter, the process is pretty simple and we’ll walk you through each step below.

How to Create Mail Merge Letters

Microsoft Word has a wizard that walks you through creating mail merge letters. The wizard will ask for the letter you want to use and the recipients of the letter, so make sure you have a list of recipients ready to be pasted. If you don’t, you can always add the recipient list manually.

Open a Word document and enter your message. Leave personalized elements (like title, name, city, etc.). For now, you can just leave a blank space where you want to insert these elements, for example:

When your template is ready, select Mailings> Start Mail Merge> Step-by-Step Mail Merge Wizard on the top ribbon.

A new panel will appear along the right border of the MS Word window. This is the wizard who guides you through the entire process. In the first step, you will need to choose the type of document you are working on. Select “Letters” and select “Next: Source Document”.

You will need to select the document you want to use for the mail merge next.
If you have already entered some content for your letter, select Use current document.
If you want to use a predefined template, select Start with template. When you have selected the starting document, click Select Recipients.

The next step is to select recipients. Assuming you have an Excel sheet populated with recipient data, you can import the data by selecting the Use an existing file option and choosing Browse in the next section.

Use Explorer to navigate to the recipient list sheet, select the sheet, and click Open.

When you select a sheet, you will see the Select Table window. Select the appropriate table (s). Make sure to check the box next to the text First row of data contains column headers if this is correct for your data and click OK.

You will then see a list of recipients that Word will use in the mail merge. If everything is ok, click OK.

When you add the Excel sheet, click Next: Write a letter.

You are now ready to add placeholders to your email. Hover over where you want to add a placeholder and choose More Items in the merge panel.

This will open the Insert Mail Merge Field dialog where you can select the appropriate placeholder and select Insert to add it to your email.

After inserting all the mail merge fields, select Next: Preview Emails.

This will show you a preview of all the mails generated by the mail merge. You can use the arrow buttons on the mail merge panel to toggle the preview of the letters.

Select Next: End the merge. In the next step, select either Print (if you want to print all letters) or Edit Individual Letters> All (if you are going to combine the letters into one document).

How to Create Mail Merge Labels

It’s always a good idea to create an Excel spreadsheet mailing list carefully so you don’t get dizzy when you need someone’s mailing data. However, if you want to print labels, your Excel sheet selection will not crop them. Instead, you will need to create mail merge labels in MS Word.

If you already have an Excel mailing list, you can proceed to the next step. If not, organize your mailing list on an Excel sheet. Add some headings (first name, last name, address, etc.) and sort the list.
Switch to MS Word. Use a wizard to create labels. Open a blank document and choose Mailings> Select Mail Merge> Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard.

Select Labels and then Next: Start Document.

On the next screen, select Change Document Layout. Then select Label Options to specify the product number and brand of the label.

After you click OK, you will see the shortcuts circled in the document. Otherwise, choose Table Design> Borders and select View Gridlines.

Return to the Mailings tab in MS Word and select Select Recipients> Use Existing List.

Browse to the Excel file containing the mailing list. Select the file and click “Open”.

You will see the Select Table window. If your workbook has multiple sheets, you will see multiple items here. Select the one that contains your mailing list. Select the check box next to the text First row of data contains column headings, and then click OK.

MS Word is importing the mailing list. Select Address Block. Take a look at the preview on the right.

If that doesn’t sound like the way you want it, select Map Fields. Make sure all of the data matches the appropriate heading on your sheet and click OK.

Take a look at the preview again. If everything is in order, click “OK”.

You will now see <> on the label. Choose Mailings> Update Labels to add <> to all labels.

The labels are now ready to be merged. Go to Mailings> Complete & Merge> Edit Individual Documents.

You will see a pop-up window. Select “All” and then “OK”.

Now you will see that all your shortcuts are merged.

How to Create Mail Merge Envelopes

The creation of mail merge envelopes is basically the same as for labels, with a few changes.

Click Mailings> Start Merging> Step-by-Step Mail Merge Wizard again, but this time select Envelopes and then select Next: Start Document Bottom.

You will be prompted to select a starting document. Select Envelope Options to select the envelope size and shipping / return address position (see next step), and select Next: Select recipients.

When you select envelope options, a pop-up window appears. Select the desired envelope size, font and placement for shipping and return address.

The next step in the wizard is to select recipients. Select Use Existing List (assuming you already have an Excel sheet with recipient details) and select Browse to locate the file. Select the appropriate file and click Next. Arrange the envelope.

On the next screen, select the Address Block, preview the preview to make sure it looks the way you want it, and click OK.

Now <> appears on the envelope.

Click Next: Preview the envelopes. You will see the same preview as in the previous step, but in your document. You can use the arrow buttons on the wizard panel to switch between envelopes.

Your envelopes are now ready to be combined. Select Next: Complete the merge.

On the next screen, you will see an option to edit individual envelopes. Select it, select “All” to combine all entries, and click “OK”.

Now you will see that all the envelopes are combined into one document.

Bulk Printing and Emails Made Easy

Using mail merge saves you a ton of time you would spend customizing letters, labels, or envelopes. However, this is not all that you can do with MS Word. You can also create greeting cards, brochures, and index cards.

Merging emails has been around for a long time, but if you want to improve the efficiency of your processes, Microsoft Office 2019 has introduced several useful features that you might want to look out for.