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The Mail Merge Tool in Microsoft Word automatically creates unique, multiple versions of a
customized "form letter." You will create a form letter using your letterhead, envelope using
the envelope created earlier, and mailing labels for your customers.
When you have completed this activity you will turn in four separate activities listed below.
You will need to zip all four activities to one zip file:
You use mail merge when you want to create a set of documents, such as a form letter that
is sent to many customers. Each letter has the same kind of information, yet the content is
unique. For example, in letters to your customers, each letter can be personalized to
address each customer by name. The unique information in each letter comes from entries
in a data source.
Create a form letter informing your customers on a upcoming event, special private sale, or
some kind of promotion you want your customers to be informed about.
On the Mailings tab, in the Start Mail Merge group, click Start Mail Merge then select Letters.
.
Create Recipient List:
With the mailing tab still selected click Select Recipients then selects Type New List.
This opens the New Address List dialog box. You will type in five customer
names. You can make these names and addresses up. You will need to include
the following information:
To begin a new name click the New Entry button at the bottom left hand side
of the New Address List.
Click OK when you have entered all five of your customer name, addresses, and e-mail
addresses. You will be prompted to save your customer database. Make sure that your
student folder is the Save in list and give a unique name.
Now that all the recipients are created you will need to type out the form letter. The first
thing you will insert is the date. With the Insert tab selected click on Date & Time.
At the Date & Time dialog box choose the first date format and put a check in the Update
Automatically.
Include Address Block:
Next you will enter the addresses of the people you entered into your database. Double
space down then click Address block and <<Address Block>> should appear two lines
under the date.
The address block dialog block will appear. Accept the defaults by clicking OK.
Your word document should now look like this:
Double space down and click Greeting line located on the Mailing tab section.
This opens the Insert Greeting Line dialog box. Choose the format you want your greeting to
be in.
<<GreetingLine>> should now be displayed on your page.
You need to include the recipients first and last name somewhere in your letter to make it
sound like you personally wrote him/her that letter. You will start the letter off with the
recipient’s name. Double space down and with the Mailing tab selected click Insert Merge
Field and select First Name, hit the space bar, then select last name. <<First Name>>
<<Last Name>> should appear where you want the name to appear.
Your word document should now look like the graphic below:
You also need to include somewhere in you document a place to place the person's e-mail
address. To include this in the letter click Insert Merge Field, then e-mail and
<<Email_Address>> should appear.
The letter below is what I typed to give you an example. Yours should be different.
Preview Your Letters:
To preview your letters, with the Mailing tab selected click Preview Results then click the
arrow keys to view all five of your documents.
Save your mail merge letters and continue on to the mail merge envelope activity.
Open your customized envelope you created with your return address and clipart image.
On the Mailings tab, in the Select Recipients group, Use Existing List..
Navigate to your student folder and select the access database you created when you were
constructing your form letter.
After you connect your envelopes to your address list, you are ready to add placeholders
that indicate where the addresses will appear on each envelope. This will be the address
block merge field.
Click where you want to place the Address Block which will be at the center of your
envelope. With the Mailing tab selected click Address Block.
Click OK at the Address Block dialog box to accept the default. Your envelope should now
look like this:
To preview your envelopes, with the Mailing tab selected click Preview Results then click the
arrow keys to view all five of your documents.
Save your mail merge envelope and continue on to the mail merge label activity.
With the Mailing Tab selected clicks Start Mail Merge then select Labels.
At the Labels Options dialog box change Label information to Avery US Letter and choose
8160. I obtained this information from the Avery Label package. Depending on what labels
you purchase will depend on the vender and the product number.
Click OK to set the label options.
On the Mailings tab, in the Select Recipients group, Use Existing List..
Navigate to your student folder and select the access database you created when you were
constructing your form letter.
Your document should now look like this. Notice that the first label holds no information.
That will be our next step:
Insert a Picture/ClipArt:
With your cursor in the first cell with the Insert tab selected click Picture or Clipart and find
the picture/clipart you want to use on your label. Click on it to place it in the first cell:
Notice that the picture is too large. With your left mouse button depressed click on one of
the selection handles and size it to fit the cell. Remember you will be adding your customers
address data to the cell.
With the picture still selected click the Format tab and then Position and position your
picture in the cell where you want it.
Place your cursor to the right of the Picture/ClipArt. With the Mailing tab selected select
Address Block.
Click OK to accept the default settings at the Address Block dialog box. FYI:You can preview
your recipients at this dialog box. Your document should now look like this:
With the Mailing tab selected click Update Labels to add the Picture/ClipArt to all your labels.
Your labels should now look like this:
Preview Labels:
To see how your labels will work, with the Mailing tab selected click Preview Results.
Your labels should now look like this. Your labels should include five different names.
I see that my zip code does not display on the same line. You can now edit the text by
selecting all the text and with the Home tab selected try different font face and size. You can
also play around with line spacing. When you have the labels the way you want them save
the document. This is how my labels look after playing around with different formats:
The last thing you will need to include is the access database that was generated when you
created your form letter. You will be including the file that looks like this:
Mail MergeVideo
The Mail Merge Tool in Microsoft Word automatically creates unique, multiple versions of a
customized "form letter." You will create a form letter using your letterhead, envelope using
the envelope created earlier, and mailing labels for your customers.
Word creates a Mail Merge by inserting information from a data document (Word or Excel
format) into another text document which contains the "form letter" information. A Mail
Merge uses two documents: a MAIN document and a DATA SOURCE document.
• The MAIN document is the "form letter"-- it contains all the text, formatting,
punctuation, styles, etc. that you want to have identical in each letter. It also
contains special FIELD NAMES (or "field variables") which indicate where the data
from the DATA SOURCE is to be inserted. The FIELD NAME is a placeholder which
contains the name of the FIELD surrounded by << and >> symbols, called
delimiters.
• The DATA SOURCE document contains all the specific records of the generic FIELD
NAMES that will make up the unique documents (for example: names, addresses,
departments). This information replaces the FIELD NAMES when the merge is finally
completed.
Uses the Mail Merge Wizard to create DATA SOURCE and MAIN documents, and to generate
the Mail Merge. You will first create the data source for the form letter. The data will be the
name of the five customers you will be sending the form letter to.
Your box
should contain
five names
where mine
only reflects
two. To add or
edit names,
click the Edit
button. Click
OK to close the
Mail Merge
Recipients box.
Click next to type your letter.
The first thing you will insert is the date. Click Insert>Date and
Time and select the format for the date. Next you will enter the
addresses of the people you entered into your database. Double
space down then click Address block and <<Address Block>>
should appear two lines under the date. Double space down and
click Greeting line and choose the format you want your greeting
to be in. <<Greeting Line>> should now be displayed on your
page. You need to include the recipients first and last name
somewhere in your letter to make it sound like you personally
wrote him/her that letter. When you are where you want the first
and last name to appear, click more items and select First Name,
hit the space bar, then click last name. <<First Name>> <<Last
Name>> should appear where you want the name to appear. You
also need to include somewhere in you document a place to place
the person's e-mail address. To include this in the letter click more
items, then e-mail and <<Email Address>> should appear.
The letter below is what I typed to give you an example. Yours should be different.
<<Address Block>>
<<Greeting Line>>
Janann Nicholson
CEO
Olives are Us
Click Next: Preview your letters. Click the << and >> arrows
to scroll preview your letters. There should be five form
letters generated. If all your letters do not show, click the
Edit recipient list and make sure that a check mark is by all
the names. Click the Next: Complete the merge button. You
will not print out the merged letters at this point so you need to save them to your folder by
clicking File>Save as, and name it merged letters.
At a clear document screen, create mailing labels for Avery 5163 (check with your teacher
on which labels she has) shipping labels using the records in the Customer data source
document by completing the following steps:
Headers and footers are areas in the top, bottom, and side margins of each page in a
document.