Creating letters using mail merge in Microsoft Word (Windows PC)
What is mail-merge?
Mail merge is a tool in Microsoft Word that allows you to send out
batches of personalised letters. Instead of sending out a generic
identical letter to all recipients, personalised data is pulled from
another file, eg an Excel spreadsheet or Word table, to create
personalised letters for each recipient.
Steps for creating the merge
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Specify that you require a letters mail-merge
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In the Mail Merge wizard pane, click to select Letters.
At the bottom of the Mail Merge wizard pane, click on Next:
Starting document.
Choose your starting document
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Set up the Excel spreadsheet or Word table.
In the Mail Merge wizard pane choose whether you want to:
o Use the current document – i.e. type
a new letter in the blank Word document
o Start from a template – i.e. browse to
find an existing Word template to prepopulate the letter.
o Start from existing document – i.e.
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For flexibility, each piece of information must be held in its own
column in the table (e.g. address would be split into Address 1,
Address 2, City, County and Postcode columns)
Each column must have a unique, easily identifiable column
header.
Start the mail merge in Word
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Open Microsoft Word.
Click on the Mailings tab.
Click on the Start Mail Merge icon.
Click on Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard.
browse to find an existing Word document
to pre-populate the letter.
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At the bottom of the Mail Merge wizard pane,
click on Next: Select recipients.
Link to the Excel spreadsheet or Word table
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In the Mail Merge wizard, choose Use an existing list.
Click on Browse.
Navigate the Excel list or Word file containing
your mail merge data and click Open.
If you are using an Excel file, confirm which
sheet in your Excel file contains the mail merge data.
Click OK.
The Mail Merge pane will appear at the right of the screen.
For more about mail-merges, visit https://staff.brighton.ac.uk/is/training and click on the Word icon.
Prepare your data
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Adding an address block
You can build your address yourself using the individual mail merge
fields as above. However, to save you some time, Word has some
pre-formatted Address Blocks that you can use instead.
Deselect the tick boxes to
exclude certain recipients from
the mail merge
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Use the drop-down arrows on a
column to only include recipients
that match certain criteria
To sort your letters, click on the Sort icon
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and specify
which column you want to sort by. Letters will print in this sort
order, making this useful for grouping letters together, eg, if you
have several letters going to the same company or department,
sorting the list by the company or department will collate them
when printing.
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Click OK.
At the bottom of the Mail Merge wizard pane, click on Next:
Write your letter
Write the letter
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In your letter, position your cursor where you want the address to
appear.
In the Mail Merge wizard pane on the right, click on Address
Block
Choose the format for the
recipient’s name
Use the arrows to scroll
through a couple of
recipients and use the
address preview to check
that the addresses are
complete.
If elements of the address are missing (eg town, county or post
code), click on the Match Fields button.
Adding individual mail merge fields
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In the Word document, type the
letter.
Whenever you want to pull
personalised text from the Excel
file or Word table, in the Mail
Merge wizard pane on the right,
click on
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The pop-up window has a menu
of the columns in your Excel file or Word table to choose from.
Click on the column you want to pull in and then click on Insert
and then Close.
The field will appear in your Word document surrounded by <<>>
The Word mail-merge fields are shown on the
left. Word will try to match its fields with the
column headings in your Excel file or Word
table itself, but will struggle where your
column headings are named differently.
eg in the example on the right, Word has a
City mail merge field whereas the Excel
sheet uses the column heading Town.
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Use the drop down arrows on the right to
assign the correct field (eg “Town” for the
city field in the example on the right)
Click OK.
Click OK. Your address will show as <<Address Block>>.
Formatting text
Set up a rule to add conditional text
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When writing your letter, you can add text that is conditional upon the
content of one of the columns in your Excel file or Word table.
Use the formatting icons on the Home tab to format text.
To format the content of an address block or similar, double click
on the block and use the formatting icons on the Home tab to
format text. The formatting will apply to the entire block.
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If you get large gaps between the lines of an address block:
- double click on <<AddressBlock>>
- click on the Home tab on the ribbon
- click on the
icon
- click on Remove space after paragraph
Adding a Greeting line
You can build your greeting line yourself using the individual mail
merge fields as above. However, to save you some time, Word has
some pre-formatted Greeting lines that you can use instead.
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In your letter, position your cursor where you want the greeting to
appear.
In the Mail Merge wizard pane on
the right, click on
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Choose the format for the recipient’s
name
Use the arrows to scroll through a
couple of recipients and use the
preview to check that the greetings are complete.
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Adding the date
choose the date format you require. This date will update
automatically each time you open the file.
Click on If… Then… Else
In the field name, choose the
column header of the column
containing the data for the rule
(in the example above, it is the
Pension_scheme column
In the Compare to field, specify what should be checked for.
Eg in our example, we are checking for the text “LGPS” in the
Pension Scheme column, as this indicates that someone is in
the pension scheme.
If elements of the greeting are missing click on the Match
Fields button and follow the instructions on the previous page to
Click on the Insert tab in the ribbon, click on
On the Mailings tab on the ribbon click on Rules.
that says whether someone is in a pension scheme or not).
match your Excel or Word list’s fields to Word’s mail merge fields.
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eg if a column in your Excel file
specifies whether someone is a
member of a pension scheme or
not, like the example on the
right, you could set the mail merge to print one paragraph on the
letters sent to those in the pension scheme, and a different paragraph
to those who are not. To do this:
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In the Insert this text box, type the text that should appear if
someone meets the rule’s criteria. Eg in the example above, if
someone has LGPS in the Pension Scheme column.
In the Otherwise insert this text box, type the text that
should appear if someone does not meet the rule’s criteria. You
can leave this blank.
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Click OK. You can see the results when previewing the individual
letters.
Preview the individual letters
Edit individual letters before printing
When writing the letter, mail merge fields will appear as
<<fieldname>>
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The preview allows you to show how this will look with the real data
pulled in from the Excel file or Word table.
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At the bottom of the Mail Merge
wizard pane, click on Next:
Preview your letters
letters
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To flick through the recipients to see
how the letter text changes, in the
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If you need to edit the text, at the
bottom of the Mail Merge wizard pane, click on Previous: Write
your letter
When you are happy with the preview of your letters, at the
bottom of the Mail Merge wizard pane, click on Next:
Complete the merge
Finish the merge
Print without editing individual letters
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In the Mail Merge wizard pane, click on Print
If you have a large recipient list you may
want to send the letters to the printer in
smaller batches by specifying the range
of letters to print using the From/to
option. Otherwise click to select All.
Click OK.
Check the printer settings and click OK.
Unless you want to edit all of your letters
individually, use the From/To fields to
specify which letter you want to edit.
Mail Merge wizard click on the
arrow key.
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In the Mail Merge wizard pane, click on Edit individual
The selected letter(s) will open as a new
separate Word document. You can then edit this document, save
it and print it as you would any other Word document.
If you have selected more than one letter, the new word
document will contain all of the selected letters, with each letter
starting on a new page.
If you then want to print all of the other letters, but exclude the one(s)
you have just edited manually:
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Your original mail merge file will remain open. To return to editing
this file, click on its window on your desktop.
In the Mail Merge wizard pane, click on Previous: Preview
your letters.
In the Mail Merge wizard pane, click on Edit recipient list…
Deselect the ticks for the recipients that you want to exclude from
the print run, ie those that you have just edited individually
Click OK
You could also click on the Exclude this recipient button whilst
scrolling through the preview of letters using the preview arrows.
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At the bottom of the Mail Merge wizard pane, click on Next:
Complete the merge
Follow the Print without editing individual letters instructions
shown opposite
Opening an existing mail-merge Word document
If you open a Word document containing a mail-merge linked to an
Excel file or Word table, you will see the following message:
This is asking if you still want to link to the same Excel file or Word
table for your mail-merge list.
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If you do want to use the same list, click Yes.
If your Excel list or Word table has changed, these changes will
be pulled into your mail merge.
This means that you can set up a frequently used mail-merge in
Word and simply update the supporting Excel sheet or Word table
for new mail-merges using the same letter text.
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If you do not want to use the same list, click on No.
You will need to specify a new list on the Select recipients
step of the Mail Merge wizard.
How to show the Mail Merge wizard on an existing mail
merge document
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Click on the Mailings tab.
Click on the Start Mail Merge icon.
Click on Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard.