20. Using Mail Merge
In This Chapter
• Understanding the basics of mail merge
• Starting a mail merge in Outlook
• Using Word’s Mail Merge Wizard
Nothing says “impersonal” as well as a form letter. Fortunately, it’s easy to use Outlook’s Contacts to create customized letters or labels in Word for print or email.
Whether you are sending a traditional mailed letter or sending email, you can use Mail Merge to customize form letters to make them appear more personal and directed specifically at the recipient. Mail merge makes it easy to create address labels and address books too.
You can start mail merges from either Outlook or Word, and you can use a number of options for configuring the mail merge. Starting a mail merge in Outlook gives you much better filtering capabilities than you’ll get by starting from Word.
Using Contacts for Mail Merge
One of the advantages to using Outlook for contacts is the capability to use your contacts for a mail merge. The benefits of mail merge include customizing and personalizing a form letter for each recipient. Mail merge can also be used for sending a group of people the same email message, enabling you to put the individuals’ addresses in the To field without exposing all the email addresses to the other recipients.
How Mail Merge Works
Outlook and Word work together when you’re doing a mail merge, and you can start the merge from either Outlook or Word. Where you begin the merge is important because it determines the fields you’ll be able to use in the mail merge.
When you start the merge in Outlook, you’ll be able to choose from all the Outlook contact fields, and you’ll have better filtering. You can even select only the contacts you want to use in the mail merge.
Regardless of the method you use to begin the merge, the steps used to complete the merge are the same.
Start the merge by clicking Mail Merge on Outlook’s Home tab. When you begin the merge from Outlook, you can filter the contacts using views and select the contacts you want to use for the merge. Although all contact form fields can be used in a mail merge when you start the merge from Outlook, only a limited set of fields are used when you start the merge using Word’s Start Mail Merge command on the Mailings tab.
If you’re more comfortable using the Mail Merge Wizard, show the Mail Merge task pane after the contacts are processed and Word opens. In Word, switch to the Mailings tab, then click on Start Mail Merge to select the type of merge you want to do.
Using Mail Merge
Using mail merge is as simple as selecting the contacts in Outlook and starting the merge.
1. Select all your contacts. On the Home tab, click the Mail Merge button (see Figure 20.1).
2. Click OK to create a form letter to the selected contacts.
3. Word opens and you type up your letter and insert Contact fields to use in the merge.
4. When you are finished composing the form letter, click the Finish and Merge button to print or email the letter.
That’s a quick introduction to using mail merge. In the next section, you learn the finer points of doing a mail merge with your Outlook Contacts.
Starting the Merge from Outlook
When you start a mail merge in Outlook, the first thing you’ll do is pick the contacts you want to include in the merge. I recommend selecting only the contacts you are going to use in the merge, either by choosing them while holding the Ctrl or Shift key as you select contacts or by using a filter to show the contacts you want to use.
If you want to use all contacts, you don’t need to select them now; you can choose to merge all contacts in the Mail Merge Contacts dialog box.
Tip
When you assign categories to your Contacts, you can group by category and then select the group of contacts to use in the mail merge.
After you’ve selected the contacts, on the Home tab, click the Mail Merge button to open the Mail Merge dialog box (see Figure 20.2).
At the top of the dialog box, you have the choice of using All Contacts in Current View, or Only Selected Contacts. You can also choose to merge all fields or only those fields in the current view.
Note
Contact Fields in Current View means fields in the view, including any you need to scroll to see, not just the fields you can see onscreen.
Next, you can choose to merge to a new document or existing document. The default setting is New Document.
If you are going to use this merge data in the future or need to save a list of recipients, save a copy of the contact data to a permanent file.
Finally, you’ll choose the type of document to merge to; the choices are Form Letter, Labels, Envelopes, and Catalog. Choose whether to merge to a document, printer, or email. If you change your mind, you can change the Document Type and Merge to type in Word.
After you make your selections and click OK, Outlook needs a few minutes to convert the contacts to a document, OMM0.doc, which it uses for the mail merge data source. When the conversion is completed, Word opens.
If you’re new to mail merge, it’s usually easier to use the Mail Merge Wizard to lead you through the final steps. After you’re familiar with the merge options, you can skip the wizard and use the ribbon commands.
From the Mailing tab, click the Start Mail Merge button and then select the Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard (see Figure 20.3). Beginning the merge from Outlook puts you at step 3 in the Mail Merge Wizard. You can go back to step 1 if you need to select a different merge type. Move back to step 2 if you need to change the document type.
Click the Next: Write Your Letter link at the bottom of the wizard. Compose your document and insert merge fields. When you’re finished composing the message, at the bottom of the task pane wizard, choose Next: Preview Your Letters.
Note
You can’t attach files to mail merges. Use a VBA macro or an add-in to include attachments in a merge to email. See http://slipstick.com/mailmerge for links to macros and add-ins.
When you’re satisfied with the document, complete the merge. The Finish & Merge button on the ribbon can send the merged documents to a printer or to email.
After a couple of uses, you’ll outgrow the Mail Merge Wizard, and you can use the command on the Mailings tab to insert fields, select the document to merge to, and use the Preview Results button to display your data in the merge fields (see Figure 20.4).
Note
Mail merge to email is often better than sending BCC messages. Many anti-spam filters are configured to treat messages in which the user is blind carbon copied as spam. Mail merge puts the recipient’s name in the To field, which allows it to pass through many anti-spam filters.
If you need to filter your list, open the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box. You can use the drop-down lists at the top of each column to set the criteria or remove the check marks from rows that you don’t want included. However, it’s usually faster and easier to filter your contacts in Outlook and then select the filtered records before beginning the merge.
Mail Merge Using Categories
One of the easiest ways to filter contacts to use in a mail merge is by grouping by categories. Select the contacts in the category and start the merge.
First, open Outlook’s Contacts folder and switch to the View tab. If you are not using the List view, expand Change View and select the List view.
1. In the Arrangement group, select Categories.
2. In the category group, select the contacts.
3. Click the Home tab and click the Mail Merge button.
4. At the top of the Mail Merge Contacts dialog box, choose Only Selected Contacts.
5. At the bottom of the dialog box, select the document type. For this example, use Form Letter.
6. Select the type of document you want to create: a document, print, or email. Choose E-mail.
7. Enter a subject for the email message. This can be changed before sending it.
8. Click OK to complete Outlook’s work and open Word.
Next, you’ll complete the document in Word.
1. Type your letter and insert contact fields. You can use the Address block, Greeting Line, or insert the fields individually by selecting the fields from the Insert Merge Field menu. Choose Address block for this exercise.
2. Click Preview results to see what the finished messages will look like. Use the Go to Record command to check different contacts.
3. When you are satisfied, click the Finish & Merge button, and then select E-mail.
Starting the Merge in Word
When you start a merge using Word’s Mail Merge menu, you lose the ability to use Outlook’s filters or categories to restrict records included in the merge. All contacts in the selected Contacts folder are included in the recipient list; however, you can filter the contacts using Word’s Sort and Filter dialog box. Outlook’s filters are better than the filters available in the Mail Merge dialog and give you more control over the contacts that you include in the merge.
To start the mail merge from Word, start a new document and click the Mailings tab.
1. Expand Start Mail Merge and select the type of document you want to create.
2. Click Select Recipients button and then click Choose From Outlook Contacts.
3. Select the contacts you want to include in the merge (see Figure 20.5).
FIGURE 20.5 When you start the merge in Word, all contacts in the selected folder are included in the merge.
4. Compose your letter and insert the merge field.
5. Click the Preview Results button to review the letter; use the Previous and Next buttons to review the results for different contacts.
6. If you are satisfied with the results, click Finish & Merge, and choose Print Documents, Send Email Messages, or Edit Individual documents to complete the merge.
Create Envelopes and Labels
If you need to print an envelope or label for one person, or a small number of people, you can use Word’s Envelopes and Labels feature to create envelopes or labels addressed to a contact in your Outlook address book. You can print the label directly from the dialog box or add it to the current document.
You open the Envelope and Labels dialog box by clicking the Envelopes or Labels button on the Mailing tab. These buttons open the Envelopes and Labels dialog box with either the Envelope or the Labels tab active.
Click the Address Book icon to open Outlook’s address book and select a contact. You can select a previously used address by expanding the Address Book menu and selecting a name (see Figure 20.6).
If you frequently add addresses to your Word documents, you can add the Address Book button to the ribbon or Quick Access toolbar to make it easier to insert contact names and addresses in any Word document. Follow these steps:
1. In Word, click File, and then click Options to open the Options dialog and select Quick Access toolbar.
2. In the Choose Commands From drop-down, select All Commands.
3. Scroll down the list of commands to locate Address Book (see Figure 20.7).
4. Click Add, and then click OK to close the Options dialog box.
When you want to insert an address into a document, click the Address Book button, and then select an address.
You are limited to the name and mailing address fields only when you use either the Envelopes and Labels dialog box or the Address Book command.