8.5 Mail merge

What you'll be able to do

Send two hundred personalised letters, labels or certificates from one letter and one spreadsheet. You will add wording that changes with the data, check for errors before anything prints, and get names spelled the way their owners spell them.

Before you start

Download the mail merge letter and the recipients workbook. The letter has gaps in it, and the list has the standard faults.

The work

1. Same either way: the data comes first, and its rules are the Excel module's rules. One row per recipient. Clean headings in row 1, such as Name, Amount and DueDate, because those become the field names. No merged cells and no blank rows. And the honest storage of phone numbers and dates from the Excel entering-data lesson. Open the practice workbook and fix whatever breaks those rules. The quality of the merge is decided here, before Word is even open.
2. No documented keyboard shortcut for this — use the menu: connect the letter to the list. In the letter, go to Mailings → Select Recipients → Use an Existing List, and pick the workbook and its sheet. Edit Recipient List, on the same tab, filters and sorts, so you can merge only the unpaid, or only one city, without touching the workbook.
3. No documented keyboard shortcut for this — use the menu: place the fields. Put the cursor in each gap and use Mailings → Insert Merge Field, choosing the column. The letter then reads "Dear «Name», your fee of «Amount»…". The fields in the double arrows are placeholders, one per column, and the ordinary text around them is shared by every letter.
4. No documented keyboard shortcut for this — use the menu: make the wording change with the data. Use Mailings → Rules → If…Then…Else: if the balance is more than zero, insert the payment paragraph, and otherwise insert the thank-you line. One letter, honestly different for each recipient. That is the difference between a mail merge and a form letter that reads like one.
5. Same either way: preview with real data before committing to anything. Alt+Shift+K swaps the fields for the first recipient's values, and you page through several of them. Look at the first row, at an amount of zero, and at the longest name. Rows at the extremes are where merges embarrass their senders. Mailings → Check for Errors runs the whole list through as a trial.
6. Same either way: commit on purpose. Alt+Shift+N merges to a new document, which holds every letter in one file that you can proofread and keep before anything prints. Alt+Shift+M merges straight to the printer, for the routine run you have done before. Merging to a new document is the beginner's safety net, so use it until it bores you.
7. No documented keyboard shortcut for this — use the menu: the variations are the same machine. Mailings → Start Mail Merge → Labels asks for the label stationery number and lays the fields out per sticker. Envelopes work the same way. A certificate is a landscape page with a large «Name» field, and the practice files make one in two minutes.

Try it

Repair the recipients workbook, connect it, and place the fields. Add the paragraph that depends on the balance. Preview the rows at the extremes, run Check for Errors, and merge to a new document. Then run the same list again as certificates.

Check yourself