Creating letters with mail merge

Available Files

The following files are available for download:

Download Exercise Files

Several people have submitted proposals for sessions at a fictional bicycle advocacy conference. We will create letters to let each person know their proposal was received and is being reviewed.

We will use Microsoft Word's mail merge features to add the recipient's address to the letter.

Creating the document

To create the letters, we will use a Microsoft Word document that contains a letterhead. Because we will want to use this letterhead for later projects, we will open and then save the document with a new name.

NOTE: We will use "MM" at the end of the file name to give us a clue that the file is indeed a mail merge document and will have a connection to a data source.

To view the saved files,
Navigate to the MailMerge_Office folder
To open the letterhead document,
Double-clickLetterhead.docx
To enable editing, if necessary,
Click

To begin saving the document with a new name, in Microsoft Word,
Click File, Click Save As
To select the current name, in the name field,
Click the current name
To rename the file, in the name field, type:
Conference-submission-MM Enter key

Selecting the data source

Now that the document has been named and saved, we can start the mail merge. We will be working with the Mailings tab on the Microsoft Word ribbon.

NOTE: Another way to create a mail merge document is to use the Mail Merge Step-by-Step wizard. While it does work, the interface is not as intuitive as using the buttons on the ribbon.

To move to the Mailings tab, on the ribbon,
Click the Mailings tab
To begin the mail merge for letters, in the Start Mail Merge group,
Click , Click Letters

Now that our document is ready, we can begin to select our data source. This source contains the information we want to use to create our letters: the recipient's name, affiliation, address, and proposal title.

Microsoft Word gives us three options for the data source: use an existing list, type a new list, or choose from Outlook contacts. Our list of potential conference presenters is in an Excel workbook named Applicants.xlsx.

To begin selecting the data source, in the Start Mail Merge group,
Click , Click Use an Existing List...
Navigate to the MailMerge_Office folder,
To choose the correct file,
Double-clickApplicants.xlsx

In Microsoft Word, the Select Table dialog box opens:

Select table dialog box

This dialog box allows us to choose a specific worksheet within the Applicants workbook, and gives us the opportunity to uncheck the "First row of data contains column headers" checkbox. There is only one worksheet listed, Applicants$. It is selected by default.

To choose the correct worksheet, if necessary, in the Select Table dialog box,
Click Applicants
To close the dialog box,
Click

There is no obvious change to our document, but the source file is now ready to be merged with our letters.

Inserting the address merge fields

Now that our document and our data source are connected, we can begin inserting the merge fields. We will begin by creating an inside address for our letter. The inside address should be in the upper left corner of the document below the letterhead. We need to correctly place the cursor in the blank document.

To correctly place the cursor,
Click under the letterhead image at the left margin
To insert the First_Name field, in the Write & Insert Fields group,
Click , Click First_Name
To put a space between the first and last names, on the keyboard, press:
Spacebar
To insert the Last_Name field, in the Write & Insert Fields group,
Click , Click Last_Name

With the recipient's name inserted, we need to move to the next line of the address. If we simply press the Enter key, there will be too much space between the lines. To keep the address single-spaced, we can insert a soft return. This is accomplished by holding down the Shift key while pressing the Enter key.

To insert a soft return and move to the next line, on the keyboard, press:
Shift key + Enter key

To insert the affiliation field, in the Write and Insert Fields group,
Click , Click Affiliation
To move to the next line of the address, on the keyboard, press:
Shift key + Enter key

To insert the Address1 field, in the Write and Insert Fields group,
Click , Click Address1
To move to the next line of the address, on the keyboard, press:
Shift key + Enter key

Now that the first three lines are complete, let's add the remaining fields to the address. Because the city, state, and zip code fields are all on the same line, we will need to add spaces and a comma between the merge fields.

To add the city merge field to the address, in the Write and Insert Fields group,
Click , Click City
To add a comma and space between the city and state fields, type:
, Spacebar key
To add the state merge field, in the Write and Insert Fields group,
Click , Click State
To add a space between the state and zip code, on the keyboard, press:
Spacebar key
To add the zip merge field, in the Write and Insert Fields group,
Click , Click Zip

The merge fields for the inside address look like this:

Image of the inside address with the fields for first name and last name on the first line. Affiliation on the second line. Street on the third line. City, state and zip on the fourth line.

Adding the greeting line

The next part of the letter is the greeting line. Microsoft Word has a built-in tool that makes it simple to insert this text. Before we begin, we need to place the cursor below the inside address.

To correctly place the cursor, if necessary, on the keyboard, press:
Enter key
To open the Insert Greeting Line dialog box, in the Write and Insert Fields group,
Click

The Insert Greeting Line dialog box opens:

The greeting line dialog box. Options include greeting line format, greeting line for invalid recipient names, and a preview of the greeting line.

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. However, to prevent gendered presumptions for possible future entries, let's change this option to None.

To change the "Greeting line for invalid recipient names" option to (none),
Click, Click (none)

To accept the greeting line and close the dialog box,
Click

The merge fields in the document now look like this:

The inside address with the fields for first name and last name on the first line. Affiliation on the second line. Street on the third line. City, state and zip on the fourth line. The greeting line is below the inside address.

Previewing the mail merge results

Before we continue working on the letter, let's take a moment to preview what we've done up to this point. By previewing the inside address and greeting line, we can find, and fix, errors in spacing and punctuation that we may have missed when looking at the merge fields.

To preview the merged letters, in the Preview Results group,
Click

The document changes and now shows us the address and greeting line for our first recipient, Diane Dell.

The address and greeting line for Diane Dell.

We can use the Preview Results tools to move through the other letters, find a specific recipient, or check for errors.

To preview the next letter, in the Preview Results group,
Click
To preview several more letters, in the Preview Results group,
Click several times
Make any adjustments to punctuation or spacing.

To turn off the Preview Results and return to the merge document, in the Preview Results group,
Click

Adding content to the letter

Now that the inside address and greeting line are correct, we can begin adding content to our letter. We want to let people know that their proposal was received and will be reviewed. This content will be a combination of text we type manually and a merge field from the source document.

To correctly position the cursor,
Click in the line beneath the greeting line
To begin adding content to the letter, type:
Thank you for your proposed conference topic,
To add the proposal merge field, in the Write & Insert Fields group,
Click , Click Proposal
To add the remaining text, type:
. We are reviewing all submissions and will notify you soon about our selections for this year's conference.
To add the signature, type:
Enter key Sincerely, Enter keyYour Name

To preview the letter content, in the Preview Results group,
Click
To preview several more letters, in the Preview Results group,
Click several times
Make any edits or adjustments, if necessary.

The letter looks like this:

The letter with the inside address, greeting line, text, and signature.

Completing the mail merge

At this point, the letters look complete. However, we are still previewing the finished document. We have not completed the merge. When the mail merge is complete, we will have individual letters for each recipient.

There are several choices for how to complete the merge. We can choose to edit the individual documents. Doing this will produce a Word document that will have a letter for each recipient. We could choose to print the documents which will send the documents directly to the printer. Or we can email the documents. Let's choose to edit the individual documents.

To open the Merge to New Document dialog box, in the Finish group,
Click , Click Edit Individual Documents...

The Merge to New Document dialog box opens:

The merge to new document dialog box.

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

To merge all of the records into a new document, in the Merge to New Document Dialog box,
Click

A new Microsoft Word document named Letters1 opens. This document contains twenty letters, one for each of our recipients. At this point, we could edit individual letters, print the letters, or simply save the document to return to at a later time.

Review the individual letters and make any necessary changes.

To begin saving the document, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + S
Navigate to the MailMerge_Office folder.
To name the document, in the File Name field, type:
submissions
To save the document,
Click
To close the document, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + W
To save the changes to Conference-submission-MM, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + S
To close Conference-submission-MM, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + W

The merged letters have been saved.

Creating letters with mail merge

Available Files

Creating the document

Step 1. Open the Word document titled Letterhead.docx.

Step 2. Save the document as Conference-submission-MM.

Selecting the data source

Step 1. Start the mail merge process.

Step 2. Select Applicants.xlsx as the data source.

Inserting the address merge fields

Step 1. Insert the First_Name and Last_Name fields individually.

Step 2. Move to the next line.

Step 3. Enter the mail merge field for the recipient's affiliation.

Step 4. Enter the mail merge field for the street (Address1).

Step 5. Add the remaining fields to the address.

Adding the greeting line

Step 1. Open the Insert Greeting Line dialog box.

Step 2. Change the "Greeting line for invalid recipient names" option to (none).

Step 3. Accept the changes made and close the dialog box.

Previewing the mail merge results

Step 1. Preview the letters.

Step 2. Preview additional letters.

Step 3. Turn off the Preview Results and return to the merge document.

Adding content to the letter

Step 1. Type the beginning of the letter.

Step 2. Preview the merge results.

Completing the mail merge

Step 1. Open the Merge to New Document dialog box.

Step 2. Merge all of the records into a new document.

Step 3. Review the letters.

Step 4. Save the merged letters and Conference-submission-MM.docx.