Creating letters using a rule

There may be an occasion when you want to send personalized messages with customized details. For example, we want to send letters to recipients confirming that their proposal was accepted. In this letter, we will include the name of the contact person based on the category of the proposal. We can use an if...then...else rule to have Word choose the correct contact person.

Creating the document

We are ready to send letters to the people whose proposals were accepted. To create these letters, we will begin with a Microsoft Word document that contains the letterhead of the Midwest Cycling Cooperative. We will create the text of the messages by using the merge fields. 

Examining the data source

Now that the letterhead has been saved with a new name, let's examine the data source. For these letters, we will use the workbook, Reviewed.xlsx. This workbook contains all of the conference proposals as well as columns indicating if the proposal was accepted.

The Reviewed workbook contains all of the information for the submitted proposals. Column J indicates if the proposal was accepted. In addition, the accepted entries have been sorted into categories (column K) and assigned a room (column L) and a time (column M). 

Filtering source data

The letters we are composing will be sent to the people whose proposals were accepted. Our source file will need to be filtered to show only those entries. Filtering can be done as part of the mail merge process.

The correct workbook is now ready to be merged with the document.

Because we are sending this letter only to the people whose proposals were accepted, we need to filter the source data. We can do that now.

The Mail Merge Recipients dialog box opens: 

This dialog box shows all of the fields and entries in the Reviewed worksheet. Using this dialog box we can sort or filter the source data as well as find specific recipients or duplicate records. We will filter to see only the accepted proposals.

The unaccepted proposals are removed and we see the remaining 15 accepted proposals.

There is no visible change to the email document. However, when we begin adding merge fields, only the recipients with unaccepted proposals will be available to us.

Inserting merge fields

Now that the letter is connected to the source data, we can use the Address Block and Greeting Line tools to begin our letter.

The Insert Address Block dialog box opens:

In this dialog box, we have the option to change the format of the recipients' names, insert a postal address, format the addresses based on the destination country, preview the addresses, and correct any problems. 

We will accept the default formatting.

With the address block in place, let's move down a couple of lines and add the greeting line.

The Insert Greeting Line dialog box opens:

In this dialog box, we can modify the format of a greeting and see a preview of what the greeting line will look like. By default, Word starts the greeting with the word "Dear" followed by the recipient's first name, last name, and a comma.

The Greeting line for invalid recipient names drop-down shows us what would happen if one or more of our recipients' records did not have first or last names. Luckily, our database is thorough, so we won't need to worry about this.

Let's accept the default formatting and insert the greeting line.

With the inside address and greeting line in place, we are ready to add the content to our letter.

Using the If...Then...Else rule

We are ready to add the content to our letter. We want to send these letters to recipients confirming that their proposal was accepted. In the letter, we will include the name of a contact person. Which contact person is named will depend on the category of the specific proposal.

In this example, any person whose proposal falls in the Infrastructure category will contact Irma Taylor. All other recipients will contact Iseul Dae-Jung. Instead of creating the letters individually, we can accomplish this using mail merge and an If...Then...Else rule. 

We will begin by typing the letter content and using mail merge fields to add the proposal names and categories.

The letter should look like this: 

We can now create the If...Then...Else rule to insert a contact person based on the category. If...Then...Else rules are commonly used in programming. The concept is binary: if one qualification is met, a certain value is returned or displayed. If the qualification is not met, another value is returned or displayed. 

In our example, any recipient with a proposal in the Infrastructure category will be in contact with Irma Taylor. All other recipients should hear from Iseul Dae-Jung. 

The Insert Word Field: IF dialog box opens:

We can use this dialog box to build our If...Then...Else rule. We can enter the field that needs to be met (Category) as well as what type of comparison we want to make (Equal to). The following sections give us areas to add the text to be inserted if the category is met as well as text to be inserted if the category isn't met.

Now that the If statement has been created, we can add the text we want Word to use if the category is Infrastructure and the text to use if the category isn't Infrastruture.

The result of the If...Then...Else statement appears in the letter. We will review the letters for accuracy in a few moments. For now, let's add a brief signature.

The letter should look like this: 

This is the first recipient, Diane Dell. We see their address as well as the greeting line. Their proposal was titled E-Bikes: The New Transportation Experience and is part of the Infrastructure series. Iseul Dae-Jung is their contact person. 

Completing the mail merge

Now that we are sure our letters are correct, we can complete the mail merge. As always when finishing a mail merge, we have three choices: Edit individual documents, Print the documents, or email the documents. Let's edit the individual documents. This will create a new Word document that will contain a copy of each letter. 

The Merge to New Document dialog box opens: 

This dialog box gives us the options to merge all of the records, the current records, or other specific records.

A new Microsoft Word document, LettersX, opens. A letter for each of the accepted recipients is in this document. At this point, we can save the document, print the letters, or edit the letters.