Show All

Hide All

Use the Mail Merge task pane to create form letters, mailing labels, envelopes, directories, and mass e-mail and fax distributions. To complete the basic process, you:

• Open or create a main document (main document: In a mail-merge operation in Word, the document that contains the text and graphics that are the same for each version of the merged document, for example, the return address or salutation in a form letter.).

• Open or create a data source (data source: A file that contains the information to be merged into a document. For example, the list of names and addresses you want to use in a mail merge. You must connect to the data source before you can use the information in it.) with individual recipient information.

• Add or customize merge fields (merge field: A placeholder that you insert in the main document. For example, insert the merge field <City> to have Word insert a city name, such as "Paris," that's stored in the City data field.) in the main document.

• Merge data from the data source into the main document to create a new, merged document.

Data source with recipient information, such as names and addresses

Main document with merge fields that act as placeholders for recipient information

Resulting merged document

The task pane guides you through all of these steps. If you prefer to work outside the task pane, you can use the Mail Merge toolbar (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, press ALT and then SHIFT+F10.). Either way, the end result is that each row (or record) in the data source produces an individual form letter, mailing label, envelope, or directory item.

Note  You can use mail merge to create any type of document that maps fields (field: A set of codes that instructs Microsoft Word to insert text, graphics, page numbers, and other material into a document automatically. For example, the DATE field inserts the current date.) to data, not just mailings or directories. For example, if your videotape collection is listed in a spreadsheet, you can use the Labels option to create videotape labels.

How-to information  Find links to more information about using mail merge under See Also, which is visible when you are connected to the Internet.