MS Word 2000 Mail Merge

MS Word 2000’s mail merge feature allows you to use a form letter or document, insert names, addresses, or other information into the letter or form automatically by inserting record fields from a data source.

Created

December 4, 2002,

by csr.

M.O.U.G.

The Big Three

Main Document

+

Source Data

Name Addr Sal

Merged Document

=

Created

December 4, 2002,

by csr.

M.O.U.G.

The Main Document

• Take your time designing the ‘main document.’ • The merge fields will take on the font of the main document’s ‘Normal’ style.

• Determine the data that will change for each letter or form.

Created

December 4, 2002,

by csr.

M.O.U.G.

date Addr 1 Addr 2 Addr 3 Salutation: Body ________________________________ _______________________________________ __________________________________ ____________________________________ _______________________________________ __________________________________ Closing, ______________

•

Will the address contain four lines? Five lines?

•

Will the salutation use the first-name or last-name?

•

Will the letter fit properly on the page after the merge?

•

Add spaces and punctuation before & after ‘merge fields’ in the main document.

Created

December 4, 2002,

by csr.

M.O.U.G.

The Data Source

What is a data source?

• A file that contains the data that varies in each copy of a merged document. • You can think of the data source as a simple table. Each column refers to a category of information. Each row contains related fields.

• The name of each data field is listed in the first row of cells, which is called the header record.

Created

December 4, 2002,

by csr.

M.O.U.G.

The Data Source

Firstname Lastname City State Zip Sue Goble Anytown MI Lynn Little Perfect MI Missy

Created

December 4, 2002,

by csr.

Prissy Pleasant MI 48888 44444 41234

M.O.U.G.

“Data Sources”

• MS Word can use the following types of files as mail merge data sources: - MS Excel workbook - MS Access database - Files from other databases for which you have installed an open database connectivity (ODBC) driver. A number of these come with MS Office.

- Files in the following format, if you included the appropriate converter when you installed Word: * ASCII text files * MS Word for Macintosh versions 3.0 – 6.x

* MS Word versions 3.0 – 6.0 for MS DOS * MS Excel versions 2.0 – 8.x

* WordPerfect versions 5.x – 6.x for MS-DOS & 5.x – 6.x for Windows * Lotus 1-2-3 versions 2.x – 4.x

Created

December 4, 2002,

by csr.

M.O.U.G.

Why Do You Need to Know About those ‘Stupid’ Delimited Text Files?

Since the mail merge helper only allows you to use 63 data fields, you can not use the Mail Merge Helper to set up a Word table. You can override this road block by setting up the data as separate tab- or comma-delimited paragraphs in a Word document.

You might also want to use a delimited text file if you can’t directly open a data source created by your database or spreadsheet program. In this case, you can export the data to a tab- or comma-delimited ASCII text file.

Created

December 4, 2002,

by csr.

M.O.U.G.

Analyzing the Data Source

• Will some data records include more information than others? • Do you plan to sort the data?

• Do you want to use a POSTNET bar code?

• Will you use information in a data field in different ways or in different types of merge documents?

• How many data fields will you have for each data record?

Created

December 4, 2002,

by csr.

M.O.U.G.

Mail Merge Help

Call 5-3000 to request assistance with any version of MS Office Mail Merge. A member of the Software Support team will make an appointment with you for one-on-one training or can give you immediate assistance during a “mail merge difficulty.”

• •

Anjal Keiser – M.O.S. Master Certification in 2000 & XP Patti Lamparter – M.O.S. Expert Certification in 2000 & Word XP

•

Gigi Zheng – M.O.S. Expert Certification in 2000 & Word XP

Created

December 4, 2002,

by csr.

M.O.U.G.