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NOVEMBER 1999
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever received a circular from a company?
The information in the letter is the same for all that
company’s clients, yet the addresses at the top of the
letter are different. The chances are that they have used
Mail Merge to achieve this.
In the office or the home, you will from time to time want to
send out the same letter to more than one address.
Mail Merge in Word 97 allows you to type up a standard
letter as a mail merge template document, into which
the data (names and addresses) will be placed (or
merged). This final merged file can either be saved, to
be recalled at a later date, or can be sent straight to the
printer.
Some of the uses mail merge may be put to outside of the
office are:
A letter of application
An invitation to a party to rival the Millennium celebrations.
A letter of thanks (or apology!) after a party.
This booklet is a step by step guide to using Mail Merge in Word 97.
I hope that you find it useful.
AJP/ILT/HOW TO CREATE A MAILMERGE.DOC 13/01/10 2
MAIL MERGE
1. In Word 97 left click on Tools on the menu bar. Hold the
mouse arrow over Mail Merge and left click once.
The next screen you come to is the Mail Merge Helper dialog
box.
2. Click on the Create button.
Highlight Form Letters and click once.
AJP/ILT/HOW TO CREATE A MAILMERGE.DOC 13/01/10 3
3. At the box shown below, click on the Active Window button
to set up your mail merge template at a later stage.
4. The Mail Merge Helper screen appears again. Click on the
Get Data button. Highlight Create Data Source and click
once.
AJP/ILT/HOW TO CREATE A MAILMERGE.DOC 13/01/10 4
5. The dialog box shown below will appear. This part of
Mail Merge enables you to set up the database into which
the names/addresses/or Customer Reference Numbers etc.
will be entered.
Moves the
field names
up or down
the list
shown.
Type in this box any field Click once on any item in this list that you do
names that are not included not want to include in the database. Once
in the given list e.g. highlighted in blue click on the Remove Field
CustomerReferenceNumber Name button
and then click on the Add
Field Name button. (The removed field name is placed in the box
DO NOT LEAVE A SPACE beside Field name. This is so that it may be
BETWEEN FIELD NAMES added again if it was removed in error. When
THAT YOU TYPE IN AS A the text is highlighted in blue, pressing any key
PHRASE. on the keyboard will delete the word you
wanted to remove.)
Once the field names have been added, removed, or moved
up or down the list, click on the OK button.
AJP/ILT/HOW TO CREATE A MAILMERGE.DOC 13/01/10 5
6. It is important to save your database for when you want
to edit the list (add or remove names and addresses etc.)
(See APPENDIX 2)
Select 3.5” Floppy [A:] or your area of the network.
Give it a name that you will recognise as the file containing
data that Word will merge to a standard letter.
In the example below I have used the filename mail merge
data. (You will end up with 3 saved Word 97 documents at
the end of the Mail merge process.)
7. When you click on the Save button on the screen shown
above you will get the dialog box shown below.
Click on the Edit Data Source button.
AJP/ILT/HOW TO CREATE A MAILMERGE.DOC 13/01/10 6
8. At the Data form window you can enter in details such as
names and addresses in the boxes beside each field.
These are the details that are unique to each individual
customer for instance, yet will be included in the standard
letter format as a merge field.
Use this button
Use these buttons to go to the last Click on this button to
to move forward record in the get a new record on
and back from database, which screen in order to type
record to record. may be a blank in new details.
9. Click on the OK button when all details have been entered
You can enter additional names and addresses at a later date, whenever
you recall the mail merge template from disk and use the
Edit Data Source button.
Or by opening the data file that you saved in Word.
See Appendix 2 for how this can be done.
AJP/ILT/HOW TO CREATE A MAILMERGE.DOC 13/01/10 7
10. You are now taken back to the unsaved Word document that
you chose at the beginning of the Mail Merge process, here
you will create your mail merge letter template.
You will see in the picture below that the Mail Merge toolbar
has been added below the other toolbars.
Get the cursor flashing at the point on the page where you
want to insert a field name.
Click on the Insert Merge Field button to get a drop down
list of the fields you selected or added to at stage 5.
Highlight the field name you want to put onto the page and
click once.
Remember to put use the spacebar on the keyboard to
put a space between the fields when they are on the
same line in the document.
You can include fields that you know only contain information
from two records for instance. Word will ignore these fields
when there is no information to go into them and will not
leave a space in the finished merged letters.
Fields will appear on the screen with parentheses << >> next
to the fieldname. The letter’s standard text can be typed in
around or below these fields as shown in the example below,
where the <<Last Name>> field is about to be added.
AJP/ILT/HOW TO CREATE A MAILMERGE.DOC 13/01/10 8
11. Save the template you created at stage 10 to 3.5” Floppy [A:]
or to your area of the network.
Give it a name that identifies the file as the mail merge
template, as in the example shown below.
12. Click on Tools on the menu bar, highlight Mail Merge and
click once. You get back to the Mail Merge Helper dialog
box.
Click on the Merge button
AJP/ILT/HOW TO CREATE A MAILMERGE.DOC 13/01/10 9
13. At the Merge dialog box keep New document selected
under Merge to:
14. Click on the Merge button.
15. You may want to save the merged letters to 3.5” Floppy [A]
or to your area of the network if they are needed at a later
stage for another printout.
Give it a filename that identifies the file as the mail merged
letters to be printed.
These are the 3 Word files that have
been created using this helpsheet :
AJP/ILT/HOW TO CREATE A MAILMERGE.DOC 13/01/10 10
APPENDIX 1
REMOVING INSERTED MAIL MERGE FIELDS
A highlighted field will appear as white text within a black
box. When the delete key on the keyboard is pressed the
field will be deleted from the page.
To highlight, either hold the left mouse button down and drag
across the field name, or hold the mouse arrow over the field
and double left click.
AJP/ILT/HOW TO CREATE A MAILMERGE.DOC 13/01/10 11
APPENDIX 2
HOW TO EDIT THE MAIL MERGE DATA FILE
Open the data file that you saved to disk or to your area of
the network at stage 6.
The data file opens in Word with the data in a table format.
(It does not matter that the data entry form that appeared at
stage 8 does not appear on screen.)
The picture below shows you how to add rows to the table
into which new data may be entered.
Click outside the right hand side of the last row so that the
cursor is flashing at this point.
Press the RETURN key on the keyboard and a new row is
added.
Click in the first cell to type in the new data under the
column heading. Use the Tab key on the keyboard to get
to the next cell, or hold the mouse arrow over the next cell
and left click once.
To add a field, highlight a column to the left of where you
want the new column and click on Table on the menu bar,
highlight and left click once.
Type in the new field name in the first row and enter the
data in the cells beneath.
AJP/ILT/HOW TO CREATE A MAILMERGE.DOC 13/01/10 12
Click on the Save button to update the data file.
Open the Mail Merge Template file from your disk and
follow steps 12 – 15 above to merge the data to the letter
Or you may want to only select the newly added records with
the “Records to be merged” part of the Merge dialog box.
(See step 14 above).
PLEASE NOTE
IF YOU ARE USING THE EDIT DATA SOURCE BUTTON
ON THE MAIL MERGE TOOLBAR TO ENTER IN NEW
NAMES ANDS ADDRESSES ETC.
ALWAYS CLICK ON THE YES BUTTON WHEN THIS BOX
APPEARS ON SCREEN WHEN CLOSING THE TEMPLATE
FILE:
TO ADD A NEW FIELD TO THE MAILMERGE DATA FILE.
SEE PAGE 12
AJP/ILT/HOW TO CREATE A MAILMERGE.DOC 13/01/10 13
APPENDIX 3
THE MAIL MERGE TOOLBAR
As a first time user of Mail Merge it is advisable to use the
drop down menus from the Menu toolbar in Word 97 to
achieve a mail merge.
As you practice and become more familiar with the steps
involved in mail merge you might want to use the shortcut
buttons on the Mail Merge toolbar.
Here is an at a glance guide to what the buttons do :
(Remember that if you hold the mouse arrow for a couple of
seconds over any of the buttons without clicking a post it
note appears as an on screen guide to the button’s function.
First Previous
Record Record
Mail
Merge
View
Go To
Merged
Record
Data
Next
Record
Last
Edit Data
Record
Source
Alt+Shift+
E
Mail Merge
Helper
(DISPLAYS THE DIALOG
BOX SHOWN IN Check For Find
STAGES 2, 4 & 12 IN
THIS HELPBOOKLET) Errors Record
Merge To
Buttons that are New
especially useful. Document Merge To
The descriptions are Alt+Shift+N Printer
in bold type Alt+Shift+M
AJP/ILT/HOW TO CREATE A MAILMERGE.DOC 13/01/10 14
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