Using MS Word’s Mail Merge Wizard
Lloyd E. Duncan
You can easily create address labels from the name and address data stored in an Excel
Spreadsheet, Access Database or an Outlook Contacts list. MS Word’s Mail Merge Wizard will
allow you to easily create them.
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Before starting the mail merge wizard, which is part of MS Word, set up your spreadsheet in MS
Excel with your “titles” across the first row of cells as shown below. This will enable the mail
merge wizard to easily read your data. If you are using data from an MS Access Database, you
must first export the data into MS Excel spreadsheet.
Once your spreadsheet is ready (don’t forget to save it), open MS Word and open a new
document. Choose Tools  Letters and Mailings  Mail Merge Wizard from the toolbar. A
sidebar wizard will open. The first step of the wizard is to choose the document type. We are
going to create a sheet of labels based on the data in our spread sheet, so choose the “labels”
radio button, then click “Next: Starting Document”.
The next step is selecting your document. Ensure the “Use the current document” radio button
is selected. There is a hyperlink named “label options…” Click on this and a box will open that
allows you to choose the type of labels you desire. This type and number can be found on the
box the label sheets came in and are also printed on the edge of each individual sheet of labels.
Choose the format of label you wish to create and click “OK” then click “Next: Select
Recipients”.
In the Select Recipients step, ensure “Use an existing list” is selected, and then click on the
“browse” link. Browse for your MS Excel file. This is also the step where you could select
Outlook Contacts. When you find and open your spreadsheet, the box below will pop up:
This box shows all the worksheets in the spreadsheet. In this case, “Sample$” is the worksheet
the desired data is on. Highlight the correct worksheet and click “OK”. The Mail Merge
Recipients box will appear next.
You can use the Mail Merge Recipients box to select or deselect individual data you wish to
include or exclude on your sheet of labels. You can also use this screen to sort your data by
using the buttons along the top of the data. The default will have each row of data selected
shown by the checkbox in the first column. After you have ensured your data is correct, click
“OK”.
Your document should now look like the screenshot above. Click on “Next: Arrange your labels”
and we will arrange the layout of the individual labels by using the first label on the sheet. Click
on the “Address Book” link.
This box allows you to choose what data and
you would like your label in. Choose how you
like the name line to look, whether or not
a company name, and the address block.
mind, if you used a second address block in
spreadsheet, the “company name” radio
will be there, and you should have it checked
include the address data. When you have
format
would
there is
Keep in
your
button
to
made
your selections, click “OK”
Click the “Update all Labels” link on the wizard. It will update all the labels with the choices you
made on the address book screen. Click on “Next: Preview Your Labels” to complete the
wizard.
In my example, two labels where made. You should be able to see a “Print Preview” of all your
labels.
It is also possible to edit individual labels from this screen. You can also go back to any step of
the wizard by the navigating URLs at the bottom of the wizard. If you are satisfied with your
labels, click on “Next: Complete the merge”. Your mail merge is now complete! You can save
this as a .doc file for future use, or print the labels immediately.
Microsoft Office’s cross-functionality allows one to manipulate data in many ways. Besides what
we have done with the Mail Merge Wizard in this article with an MS Excel spreadsheet, you can
also import data from your MS Outlook’s Contacts list or data stored in an Access Database. If
you’re using your hand-written address book, you can also manually input the data and save it,
essentially creating an additional address book.