Applies to
Microsoft® Office Publisher 2003

Designing a great marketing brochure is pointless if you don’t also have an easy and cost-effective way to get it into your customers’ hands. Using commercial printers, high-quality paper, and an outside vendor is one solution, but it may not fit your budget.

If you don’t have huge quantities to print and mail (you need hundreds rather than thousands of copies), and you have a color desktop printer, you can use Publisher to prepare mass mailings in house. After you create the brochure, newsletter, postcard or other publication that you want to mail, you can generate addressed copies of the publication or mailing labels using Publisher's built-in Mail and Catalog Merge Wizard.

The Wizard also makes it possible for you to individually customize each publication or label for a specific customer. For example, you can

• Add personal greetings (“Dear Nancy,” “Hi, Michael”) so each publication speaks directly to its recipient.
• Include customer-specific notes in brochures or flyers or on labels that target special pricing on products or services a customer has used in the past.
• Send real estate postcards that include photographs of houses you think specific customers might want to purchase or veterinary appointment reminders that include pictures of customers' pets.

Address the publication itself or use mailing labels?

As mentioned above, you can add mailing addresses and personal information to publications in two different ways. You can add customer mailing addresses and personal information onto:

• Copies of the publication itself.
• Mailing labels, and then paste the labels onto individual copies of the publication.

The advantage to adding addresses to copies of a publication is that the address looks just like all the rest of the content so it doesn't disrupt the design the way a label can. Also, everything is integrated right into the publication so you don't have a separate label project to deal with.

On the other hand, once you set up your labels, you can print a batch at any time. This can be handy if you have your publications printed commercially or if you create and mail several different types of publication. You can buy clear labels that won't hide the publication's color and design, and you can print your labels using the same font style used in your publication.

Prepare for a mass mailing

The addresses and personal information that you add to publications or labels have to come from somewhere. That's why the first step in preparing for a mass mailing is to set up a data file, such as a Microsoft Office Excel 2003 spreadsheet, Microsoft Office Word 2003 table, Microsoft Office Access 2003 database, or even a Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 Contacts folder, that contains contact information about your customers.

When you set up the data file, keep the following in mind (as you read the bullets, refer to the picture below, which shows columns in an Excel spreadsheet and merge fields on two sides of a postcard):

• Each column in the data file corresponds to one piece of information you want to add to a publication or label. So, if, for example, you want to add a customer's address and a personal note to each copy of a postcard you print, you'll need columns in the data file for name, street address, city, state, zip, and personal note.
• You have to tell the Mail and Catalog Merge Wizard where in a publication or on a label you want each piece of information to appear. You do that by adding fields. For example, if you want to print name, street address, city, state, zip, and personal note on each copy of a postcard, the postcard publication must contain a field for each of those pieces of information.
• Each row in the data file contains information that goes onto one copy of the publication or onto one label. For example, all the information in row 2 of the Excel spreadsheet below goes onto the postcard you are sending to customer 1, all the information in row 3 goes onto the postcard you are sending to customer 2, and so on.

Tip   If you want to merge pictures into the publications you intend to mail, your data file must include a pictures column. Each row in that column should contain a path to a specific picture, for example: C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\My Pictures\Mass Mailing Project\firstphoto.jpg.

Add information to copies of a publication

After you have created your publication and set up your data file, you're ready to use the Mail and Catalog Merge Wizard to merge addresses from the data file onto copies of the publication. To get information from the file into the publication, you'll follow these steps:

• Anticipate your approach to printing.
• Open the publication and data files.
• Indicate where you want the address or personalized information to appear.
• Preview and print the personally-addressed publications.

To anticipate your approach to printing

Most publications that you are going to address and mail, like postcards and brochures, are two-sided publications. This means that when you print them, you want the two sides of the publication to print on the front and back of the same sheet of paper. If you have a printer that supports duplex printing, you can just skip the rest of this section and move on to the next, To open the publication and data files. If your printer does not support duplex printing, read on.

When you use the Mail and Catalog Merge Wizard to create a set of addressed publications, you can't print one whole run of side 1 of the publication and then one whole run of side 2. Both sides always print, one after the other, on two separate pieces of paper. This means that you have to do a little fudging to print a two-sided publication on a printer that doesn't support duplex printing.

What you have to do is set up two Publisher files, each with a unique name, one for each side of the publication. Then, you can print the publication for side 1, turn the paper over and put it back into the printer, and print the publication for side 2. Here's how to set up the files:

1. In Publisher, open the two-sided publication that you want to print.
2. Click the page navigation control at the bottom of the window to display side two. On the Edit menu, click Delete Page, and then click OK.
3. On the File menu, click Save As, and save the file with a new name (like Side1.pub).
4. Open the original publication, and display side one. On the Edit menu, click Delete Page, and then click OK.
5. On the File menu, click Save As, and save the file with a new name (like Side2.pub).
6. Now, go on to the next section, To open the publication and data files. If you are merging information from a customer data file onto both sides of a publication (for example, if the address goes on one side and a personal note on the other), you'll have to repeat the steps below for each of the two files you just created (Side1.pub and Side2.pub).

To open the publication and data files

1. Open the Publisher file for the publication into which you want to merge address and other information. On the Tools menu, point to Mail and Catalog Merge, and then click Mail and Catalog Merge Wizard.

   The Mail and Catalog Merge Wizard opens in the task pane.

2. Under Select a merge type, click Mail Merge, and then click Next: Select data source at the bottom of the task pane.
3. Under Select data source, click Use an existing list, and then click Browse.

    Note   If you want the wizard to read information from your Microsoft Outlook Contacts folder, click Select from Outlook contacts, and then click Choose Contacts Folder.

4. Locate your data file (or Outlook Contacts folder), and then click Open. If necessary, select the table in the file that contains the information you want to use, and then click OK.
5. In the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box, narrow or sort the list as appropriate. Make sure each of your intended recipients is checked, and then click OK.

   In the task pane, under Use an existing list, your data file is now listed.

6. Click Next: Create your publication at the bottom of the task pane.

To indicate where the address information appears

1. Click a text box in your publication where you want the address to appear.
   • If there is already text in the text box and you want to delete it, select it, too.
   • If there is already text in the text box and you want to keep it, position the cursor where you want to insert the address.
   • If no text box exists where you want it, on the Insert menu, click Text Box, and then draw a rectangle the size you want.
2. In the task pane, click Address block.
3. In the Insert Address Block dialog box, choose the options you want for how the name and address will look, and then click Match Fields.
4. In the Match Fields dialog box, address elements (such as first name and city) appear on the left and drop-down lists on the right. Your goal here is to make sure that, for each address element you care about, the appropriate column from your data file appears in the drop-down list (some of the lists may already display the appropriate column). When you've matched elements and columns, click OK, and then click OK again.

To indicate where personalized information or pictures appear

You can personalize each copy of a publication for its recipient by merging a specific greeting, note, or photograph.

1. To add personalized content to your publication, do one or both of the following:

   Add a greeting line or text message

   1. Click a text box in your publication where you want personalized information to appear.
      • If there is already text in the text box and you want to delete it, select it, too.
      • If there is already text in the text box and you want to keep it, position the cursor where you want to insert the address.
      • If no text box exists where you want it, on the Insert menu, click Text Box, and then draw a rectangle the size you want.
   2. In the Mail and Catalog Merge task pane, do one of the following:
      • To add a greeting line, click Greeting line, choose the greeting format you want, and then click OK.

        The Wizard inserts «Greeting Line» into the text box.

      • To add a personalized message from your data file, point to the appropriate merge field in the list box in the task pane, click the arrow that appears on the right, and then click Insert as Text.

   Add a picture

   For detailed information about merging pictures and setting up your data file with picture file information, use the See Also link to Merge pictures into a publication.

   1. In your publication, click where you want to insert the merge field for a picture.
   2. In the list box in the Mail and Catalog Merge task pane, point to the field that corresponds to the photo information in your data file, click the arrow that appears on the right, and then click Insert as Picture.

      Publisher inserts a merge field within a picture frame into your publication at the insertion point you selected. You can resize or move the picture frame.

To preview and print the addressed publications

1. At the bottom of the task pane, click Next: Preview your publication.
2. Using the navigation buttons at the top of the task pane (<< and >> ), scroll through the publications to make sure the information merged the way you wanted.
3. When you are satisfied with the way the publications look, at the bottom of the task pane, click Next: Complete the merge.
4. In the task pane, click Print to print the addressed copies of your publication. In the Print Merge dialog box, choose the options you want, and then click OK.

   Note   If your printer supports duplex printing, follow the printer's instructions to set it up before you click OK.

 Note   If you save this file and open it again later, information you merged from the data file won't be there. However, Publisher remembers which data file you last merged with the publication, so you can immediately see data merged into copies of the publication again by pointing to Mail and Catalog Merge on the Tools menu, and clicking Show Merge Results.

Add information to labels

You've got your customer addresses and personal information in a data file and now you want to produce a set of mailing labels. A key consideration with labels is that you have to buy special label sheets to print the label text on. Publisher label publications are set up to work with a variety of Avery label sheets. But, if you already have a bunch of label sheets of some other brand, don't worry. You can do some tinkering with page setup to get the labels to print on the sheets you have.

Producing a set of labels involves these steps:

• Opening a label publication that matches the label sheets you'll print on.
• Customizing the labels so the text or color of the labels matches the text or colors in the publication you'll stick the labels on.
• Merging address information from the data file onto the labels.
• Merging personal information or pictures onto the labels.
• Previewing and printing the labels.

To open a label publication

If you don't already have label sheets that the labels will print on, do this:

1. In the New Publication task pane, click Publications for print, and then click Labels.
2. On the right, you see a list of mailing and other labels. Under each label name is the Avery label sheet number that the label has been designed for. Pick the label style you like and then go out and buy the matching Avery label sheets.
3. When you're back, start Publisher. In the New Publication task pane, click Publications for print, and then click Labels.
4. Click the label publication on the right that matches the label sheets you just bought. A label is displayed with mailing address lines in it.

If you already have Avery label sheets, do this:

1. In the New Publication task pane, click Publications for print, and then click Labels.
2. On the right, you see a list of mailing and other labels. Under each label name is the Avery label sheet number that the label has been designed for. Find the label style that matches the Avery label sheets you already have, and click it.

   Tip   If none of the label styles matches the sheets you already have, see If you already have label sheets that aren't Avery, do this below.

3. A label is displayed with mailing address lines in it.

If you already have label sheets that aren't Avery, do this:

1. In the New Publication task pane, under New, click Blank print publication.
2. On the File menu, click Page Setup.
3. Under Publication type, click Label.
4. Under Page size, click each label name until you find one with dimensions that most closely match the dimensions of the labels on the sheets you already have (each time you click a label type, you can see its dimensions under Width and Height).
5. Click Adjust Label Printing. In the dialog box, adjust the margin and gap sizes to accommodate the size differences of your labels.
6. Click OK, and then click OK again. A blank label is displayed.

To customize the labels

1. In the Publication Designs task pane, click Color Schemes or Font Schemes.
2. Click the color or font scheme that matches the publication you'll paste the labels on.

To merge address information onto the labels

1. On the Tools menu, point to Mail and Catalog Merge, and then click Mail and Catalog Merge Wizard.

   The Mail and Catalog Merge Wizard opens in the task pane.

2. Under Select a merge type, click Mail Merge, and then click Next: Select data source at the bottom of the task pane.
3. Under Select data source, click Use an existing list, and then click Browse.

    Note   If you want the wizard to read information from your Microsoft Outlook Contacts folder, click Select from Outlook contacts, and then click Choose Contacts Folder.

4. Locate your data file (or Outlook Contacts folder), and then click Open. If necessary, select the table in the file that contains the information you want to use, and then click OK.
5. In the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box, narrow or sort the list as appropriate. Make sure each of your intended recipients is checked, and then click OK.

   In the task pane, under Use an existing list, your data file is now listed.

6. Click Next: Create your publication at the bottom of the task pane.
7. If there are mailing address lines on the label, click the text. If the label is blank, on the Insert menu, click Text Box, and then draw a rectangle the size you want.
8. In the task pane, click Address block.
9. In the Insert Address Block dialog box, choose the options you want for how the name and address will look, and then click Match Fields.
10. In the Match Fields dialog box, address elements (such as first name and city) appear on the left and drop-down lists on the right. Your goal here is to make sure that, for each address element you care about, the appropriate column from your data file appears in the drop-down list (some of the lists may already display the appropriate column). When you've matched elements and columns, click OK, and then click OK again.

To merge personal information onto the labels

You can personalize labels by adding a note or picture.

1. To add personal information to your label, do one or both of the following:

   Add a personal note

   1. In the text box that contains the address, place the cursor where you want the personal note to appear. Or, if you want the personal note to be in a text box of its own, on the Insert menu, click Text Box, and then draw a rectangle the size you want.
   2. In the task pane, under Point to the field that you want to insert, locate the personal note field in the list box, click the arrow that appears on the right, and then click Insert as Text.

   Add a picture

   For detailed information about merging pictures and setting up your data file with picture file information, use the See Also link to Merge pictures into a publication.

   1. On the label, click where you want to insert the merge field for a picture.
   2. In the list box in the Mail and Catalog Merge task pane, point to the field that corresponds to the photo information in your data file, click the arrow that appears on the right, and then click Insert as Picture.

      Publisher inserts a merge field within a picture frame into your publication at the insertion point you selected. You can resize or move the picture frame.

To preview the labels

1. At the bottom of the task pane, click Next: Preview your publication.
2. Using the navigation buttons at the top of the task pane (<< and >> ), scroll through the labels to make sure the information merged the way you wanted.
3. When you are satisfied with the way the labels look, at the bottom of the task pane, click Next: Complete the merge.

To print the labels

At this point, you can print your labels by clicking Print in the task pane, and then choosing options in the Print Merge dialog box. But, since you're printing to special label sheets you had to purchase, it's probably worthwhile to do a couple of other things before you hit that Print link:

• On the File menu, click Print Preview to see how the labels will print on one entire printed page. If the labels or spacing doesn't look right, you can go back and make changes. Don't be alarmed if you see the same customer address on all the labels in the Print Preview window. This just reflects the last label you previewed in the wizard. When you actually print, a unique address will appear on each label.
• Even when you think you're absolutely ready to print, do a test run by printing one page of labels on regular old printer paper. You can hold up the test page to one of your label sheets and see if everything is aligning right.

Notes

• Do not click the Create new publication or Add to existing publication links in the task pane. If you create a new publication from your merged labels or add the labels to an existing publication, you'll get a whole sheet of labels for each recipient rather than just one label for each.
• After you merge, if you save your label publication file and open it again later, information you merged from the data file won't be there. However, Publisher remembers which data file you last merged with the publication, so you can immediately see data merged into copies of the publication by pointing to Mail and Catalog Merge on the Tools menu, and clicking Show Merge Results.