Thanks to the miracle of computing, you can churn out form letters, labels, and envelopes for a mass mailing in the privacy of your home or office, just as the big companies do. It’s easy, as long as you take the time to prepare the source file. The source file is the file that the names and addresses come from. A Word table, an Excel worksheet, a Microsoft Access database table or query, or an Outlook Contacts list or Address Book can serve as the source file. To generate form letters, labels, or envelopes, you combine the source file with a form letter, label, or envelope document. Word calls this process merging. During the merge, names and addresses from the source file are plugged into the appropriate places in the form letter, label, or envelope document. When the merge is complete, you can either save the form letters, labels, or envelopes in a new file or start printing right away. The following text explains how to prepare the source file and merge addresses from the source file with a document to create form letters, labels, or envelopes. Then you discover how to print the form letters, labels, or envelopes.

Preparing the source file

If you intend to get addresses for your form letters, labels, or envelopes from an Outlook Contact List or Address Book on your computer, you’re ready to go. However, if you haven’t entered the addresses yet or you are keeping them in a Word table, Access database table, or Access query, make sure that the data is in good working order:

 -  Word table: Save the table in its own file and enter a descriptive heading at the top of each column. In the merge, when you tell Word where to plug in address and other data, you will do so by choosing a heading name from the top of a column.

 -  Excel table: Arrange the worksheet in table format with a descriptive heading atop each column. Word will plug in address and other data by choosing heading names.

 -  Access database table or query: Make sure that you know the field names in the database table or query where you keep the addresses. During the merge, you will be asked for field names. By the way, if you are comfortable in Access, query a database table for the records you will need. As you will find out shortly, Word offers a technique for choosing only the records you want for your form letters, labels, or envelopes. However, by querying first, you can start off with the records you need and spare yourself from having to choose records in Word. A Word table or Access table or query can include more than address information. Don’t worry about deleting information that isn’t required for form letters, labels, and envelopes. As you will find out soon, you get to decide which information to include from the table or query.

Merging the source file with the document

The next step in generating form letters, labels, or envelopes for a mass mailing is to merge the source file with the document. Follow these general steps to do so:

1. Open a new document if you want to print labels or envelopes en masse; if you want to print form letters, either open a new document or open a letter you have already written and delete the addressee’s name, the address, and other parts of the letter that will differ from recipient to recipient.

2. Choose Tools -> Letters and Mailings -> Mail Merge. The Mail Merge task pane appears. As you complete each step in the Mail Merge Wizard, you will click the Next hyperlink at the bottom of the task pane.

3. Under Select Document Type in the task pane, select the Letters, Envelopes, or Labels option button; and, under Step 1 of 6, click the Next: Starting Document hyperlink.

4. Under Select Starting Document in the task pane, choose the type of document with which you are dealing; and, under Step 2 of 6, click the Next: Select Recipients hyperlink. Here are your choices in Step 2:

• Form letters: With the Use the Current Document option button already selected, you’re ready to go. The text of your form letter already appears on-screen if you followed the directions for opening it or writing it in Step 1. (To use a form letter you have used before, select the Start from Existing Document option button, click the Open button, find and select the letter in the Open dialog box, and click the Open button. Your form letter appears on-screen.)

• Labels: With the Change Document Layout option button already selected, click the Label Options hyperlink under Change Document Layout. You see the Label Options dialog box, where you tell Word what size labels you will print on. See “Printing a Single Address Label (or a Page of the Same Label),” earlier in this article, if you need advice for filling out this dialog box. A sheet of sample labels appears on-screen.

• Envelopes: With the Change Document Layout option button already selected, click the Envelope Options hyperlink under Change Document Layout. You see the Envelope Options dialog box, where, on the Envelope Options and Printing Options tabs, you tell Word what size envelope you will print on. See “Printing an Address on an Envelope” earlier in this article, for instructions about filling out these tabs. A sample envelope appears on-screen.

5. Tell Word what your source file or the source of your address and data information is. The earlier section, “Preparing the source file,” explains what a source file is. Your options are as follows:

• Addresses from a Word table, Excel table, Access database table, or Access query: Under Select Recipients, make sure that the Use an Existing List option button is selected and then click the Browse hyperlink under Use an Existing List. You see the Select Data Source dialog box. Locate the Word file or Excel table with the table or the Access database with the table or query, select it, and click the Open button. If you select an Access database, you see the Select Table dialog box. Select the table or query you want and click the OK button.

• Addresses from Microsoft Outlook: Under Select Recipients, select the Select from Outlook Contacts option button. Then, under Select from Outlook Contacts, click the Choose Contacts Folder hyperlink. The Choose Profile dialog box appears. Click OK in this dialog box. You see the Select Contacts List folder dialog box. Double-click the Contacts folder there. Now you’re getting somewhere. You see the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box, with its list of contacts.

6. In the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box, select the names of people to whom you will send mail; then click OK. To select recipients’ names, select or deselect the check boxes on the left side of the dialog box, or else click the Clear All button to remove all the checks and then select recipients’ names one at a time.

7. Click the Next hyperlink in the bottom of the task pane to go to Step 4 of the mail merge.

8. Enter the address block on your form letters, labels, or envelopes. The address block is the address, including the recipient’s name, company, title, street address, city, and ZIP Code. If you’re creating form letters, click in the sample letter where the address block will go. If you’re printing on envelopes, click in the middle of the envelope where the delivery address will go. Then follow these steps to enter the address block: • Either click the Insert Address Block button on the Mail Merge toolbar or click the Address Block hyperlink in the Mail Merge task pane. The Insert Address Block dialog box appears. • Choose a format for entering the recipient’s name in the address block (watch the Preview window as you do so). • Click the Match Fields button. You see the Match Fields dialog box • Using the drop-down lists on the right side of the dialog box, match the fields in your source file with the address block fields on the left side of the dialog box. • Click OK in the Match Fields dialog box and the Insert Block Address dialog box. The <<AddressBlock>> field appears in the document where the address will go. Later, when you merge your document with the data source, real data will appear where the field is now. Think of a field as a kind of placeholder for data.

9. Click the View Merged Data button on the Mail Merge toolbar to see real data rather than fields. Now you can see clearly whether you entered the address block correctly. If you didn’t enter it correctly, click the Match Fields button on the Mail Merge toolbar to open the Match Fields dialog box and make new choices. 10.Put the finishing touches on your form letters, labels, or envelopes:

• Form letters: Click where the salutation (“Dear John”) will go and then click the Insert Greeting Line button on the Mail Merge toolbar or the Greeting Line hyperlink. You see the Greeting Line dialog box. Make choices in this dialog box to determine how the letters’ salutations will read. The body of your form letter may well include other variable information such as names and birthdays. To enter that stuff, click where variable information goes and then click the Insert Merge Fields button or the More Items hyperlink. The Insert Merge Field dialog box appears and lists fields from the source file. Select a field, click the Insert button, and click the Close button. If you’re editing your form letter and you need to see precisely where the variable information you entered is located, click the Highlight Merge Fields button. The variable information is highlighted in your document.

• Labels: Click the Update All Labels button on the bottom of the task pane to enter all recipients’ labels in the sample document. (You may have to click the down arrow on the bottom of the task pane several times to see the button.) To include postal bar codes on labels, click the Postal Bar Code hyperlink in the task pane, make sure that a ZIP Code field is selected in the Insert Postal Bar Code dialog box, and click OK. Postal bar codes help the mail get delivered faster.

• Envelopes: If you don’t like the fonts or font sizes on the envelope, select an address and change fonts and font sizes with the dropdown lists on the Formatting toolbar. To enter a return address, click in the upper-right corner and enter it by hand. To include postal bar codes on envelopes, click below the delivery address, click the Postal Bar Code hyperlink in the task pane, and fill in the Insert Postal Bar Code dialog box. 1

1. Click the Next Record and Previous Record buttons on the Mail Merge toolbar to skip from recipient to recipient and make sure that you have entered information correctly. The items you see on-screen are the same form letters, envelopes, or labels you will see when you have finished printing. (Click the View Merged Data button if you see field names rather than people’s names and addresses.) If an item is incorrect, open the source file and correct it there. When you save the source file, the correction is made in the sample document. At last you’re ready to print the form letters, labels, or envelopes. Better keep reading.

Printing form letters, labels, and envelopes

After you have gone to the trouble to prepare the data file and merge it with the document, you’re ready to print your form letters, labels, or envelopes. Start by loading paper, sheets of labels, or envelopes in your printer:

 -  Form letters: Form letters are easiest to print. Just put the paper in the printer.

 -  Labels: Load the label sheets in your printer.

 -  Envelopes: Not all printers are capable of printing envelopes one after the other. Sorry, but you probably have to consult the dreary manual that came with your printer to find out the correct way to load envelopes. Now, to print the form letters, labels, or envelopes, save the material in a new document or send it straight to the printer:

 -  Saving in a new document: Click the Merge to New Document button on the Mail Merge toolbar (or press Alt+Shift+N) to create a new document for your form letters, labels, or envelopes. You see the Merge to New Document dialog box. Click OK. After Word creates the document, save it and print it. You can go into the document and make changes here and there before printing. In form letters, for example, you can write a sentence or two in different letters to personalize them.

 -  Printing right away: Click the Merge to Printer button (or press Alt+Shift+M) to print the form letters, labels, or envelopes without saving them in a document. Click OK in the Merge to Printer dialog box and then negotiate the Print dialog box.