8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

1/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

1

Microsoft Office Word 2003

Tutorial 6 Creating Form Letters and

Mailing Labels

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

2/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

2

Learn about the Mail Merge process

Words Mail Merge can be used to create form

letters and other documents.

It combines information from two documents orsources to create a new document containing the

merged information.

The process includes a main document that will

receive information extracted from a data source

to produce a final document.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

3/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

3

Mail merge components

The Mail Merge process consists of three main

components.

The main document contains placeholders, calledmerge fields, that denote what information from the

data source is plugged into that location

The data source contains information, such as names

and addresses, that replace the merge fields in the maindocument

The final document is called the merged document

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

4/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

4

Mail Merge documents

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

5/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

5

Use the Mail Merge Wizard

Words Mail Merge task pane will walk you step-

by-step through the Mail Merge process.

It asks you to select the main and data documents,and allows you to insert merge fields, preview the

document, and finalize the process.

Every step in the task pane assists you in

completing the Mail Merge process, and allows

you to back track to previous steps if you have

entered an incorrect option.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

6/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

6

Select a main document

The main document for a Mail Merge process can

be a letter, e-mail, mailing labels, etc.

After the type of document is selected, there willbe three choices for selecting the actual main

document. The main document can be:

A new document created from a template

The document currently open in the Document window

An existing document on a disk

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

7/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

7

Choose a starting document

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

8/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

8

Choose a data source

The data source for a Mail Merge operation is the

file containing the data to be merged into the main

document. It frequently contains names and addresses, but

may also contain other information.

An existing file can be used as the data source for

a Mail Merge, or you can select an option to create

a new list and enter the data into it on the fly.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

9/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

9

Select the data source fields

Once the data source is selected, the fields to be included in themerge process must be identified.

If you are creating a new data source, Word will open a dialog

box and supply default names for the various fields which canbe accepted, or the default names can be deleted and new fieldsadded.

Once the fields have been defined, data can be entered for eachfield.

As each data record is completed, click the button in the dialogbox to accept that record and prepare the dialog box for the nextrecord.

When all records have been entered, save the data source file.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

10/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

10

Create a new data source

When you select the Type a new list option in the Mail Merge Wizardpane, the New Address List dialog box will appear.

If you are doing a merge with names and addresses, the default names

in this dialog box will probably suffice. Otherwise, you can click the Customize button to delete fields you

don't want, and to add fields that you do want.

Once the fields have been defined, you can begin entering data into thefield text boxes.

As each record is completed, click the New Entry button to insert therecord into the data source file.

When all data has been entered, you can then save the data source andproceed with the remainder of the merge process.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

11/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

11

The New Address List dialog box

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

12/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

12

The Customize Address List

dialog box

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

13/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6 13

A data source record with data added

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

14/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6 14

Insert merge field codes into

a main document

After selecting a main document and a data source, thenext step in the Mail Merge process is to enter the mergefields into the main document.

These are the placeholders that tell Word which data to insert intowhich location

Word will automatically insert the current date and timeinto your document in a format you select.

Next, select the fields from the data source file to merge.

Position the cursor in the main document to where eachmerge field is to be inserted and select the merge data fieldthat goes into each location.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

15/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6 15

Insert the merge fields

To begin the process of inserting merge codes, you first clickthe Write your letter option in the Wizard pane.

You will be asked if you want to insert a date and time, and can

choose from many different formats. Or, you can choose to skipit.

Next, choose the actual data fields from your data source fromthe Insert Merge Field dialog box.

You should then position the cursor in the location where each

data field goes, and click the Insert Merge Field button on thetoolbar.

You then select which merge data field goes into whichlocation.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

16/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6 16

The Insert Merge Fields dialog box

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

17/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6 17

A main document with

merge fields inserted

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

18/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6 18

Preview a merged document

Once the merge fields have been inserted into the main

document, Word allows the document to be previewed to

see how it will look when data is inserted.

It is an opportunity to look for missing spaces between

codes, or to see if any required fields have been

inadvertently left out.

Any formatting problems can be spotted at this time.

If errors are found, you can back up and correct the

problem.

Otherwise, you can proceed to complete the merge.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

19/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6 19

How to preview your document

To preview your document, click the Next: Preview your

letters link in the Mail Merge Task Pane.

This will cause the data from the first data source filerecord to be inserted into a main document and display it in

the Document window.

If you spot any errors in your document, click the

Previous: Write your letter link to back up and correct

whatever problems you found.

If the document looks OK, click the Next: Complete the

merge link to move forward to the next step.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

20/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6 20

A document in preview view

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

21/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6 21

Complete a Mail Merge

The final step in the Mail Merge process is to

create the final merged documents.

If the merged documents do not need to be saved,they can be merged directly to a printer, which

will then print each document without saving.

The documents can also be saved, in which case a

new document will be created containing the main

document information and data source information

for every record in the data source file.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

22/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6 22

Print or save the final documents

By clicking the Next: Complete the merge link in the

Task Pane, Word will complete the process of merging

all data into merged documents. Word will assign a default name to the merged

document.

This final document can be printed and deleted if it is

not needed again, or the document can be saved. The final document will contain one letter, or label, or e-

mail, etc., for each data source record.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

23/30

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

24/30

XP

New Perspectives onMicrosoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6 24

Edit an existing data source

Sometimes, after a Mail Merge has been

completed, you will find that there was data

missing from the data file, or additional data needsto be inserted.

The data source file can then be edited to add the

new data, and the merge process can be repeated.

The data source can be edited using whatever

application created the file, or it can be edited

from within the Mail Merge Wizard.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

25/30

XP

New Perspectives on

Microsoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

25

How to edit a data source

It may be easiest to edit the file in the application in which

it was created.

You can also use the Mail Merge Wizard to edit the file. It may be easiest to edit the data source using the Mail

Merge toolbar, rather than the Task Pane.

Open the main document, with the field codes added, and

then click the Open Data Source button on the Mail Merge

toolbar.

Locate and open the data source through the dialog boxes

presented to you.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

26/30

XP

New Perspectives on

Microsoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

26

Edit the data source file in Word

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

27/30

XP

New Perspectives on

Microsoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

27

Sort and filter records

There are times when it would be better if the mergeddocuments are in some specific data sequence. This would be especially true if preparing mailing labels for a bulk

mailing, which requires the mail to be in zip code sequence Word's Mail Merge feature allows the sorting of a datasource into whatever sequence it needs to be in.

There may be other occasions when only certain records inthe data source file should be selected for merging. Perhaps some company wants to mail all customers in only one or

two states

Filters can be applied before merging the data to the finaldocuments, which will limit the data selected to only thatdata matching the filter criteria.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

28/30

XP

New Perspectives on

Microsoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

28

Set sort and filter settings

You can sort data and apply filters by accessing the Mail

Merge Recipients dialog box.

To sort the data by some field, click the heading bar forthat column in the dialog box and the data will be sorted on

that column.

Filters can be applied in the same dialog box by selecting

or deselecting the check boxes in the first column.

Removing the check box for a record means the record will

not be selected when the merge is done.

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

29/30

XP

New Perspectives on

Microsoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

29

Sort by specific fields

8/6/2019 Word.06 2003

30/30

XP

New Perspectives on

Microsoft Office Word 2003 Tutorial 6

30

Apply a filter