How Do I Mail Merge In Microsoft Excel?

Mail Merge In Microsoft Excel

Need to produce a large volume of documents designed for different contacts with different details?

Composing these documents manually would be a tedious and time-consuming task. That’s why you should use a mail merge feature instead.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to use Microsoft Excel’s mail merge feature to quickly compose mass documents with specific details drawn from a spreadsheet.

How To Use Mail Merge

By arranging a spreadsheet with specific details (name, stress address, etc.), you can integrate it directly with Microsoft Word and have the information put into a specific document template.

Add an Address Block

1. Click/tap where you want to add an address block in the document.
2. Open the Mailings tab.
3. Select Address block.

Add a Greeting Line

1. Click/tap where you want to add a greeting in the document.
2. Select Greeting line.
3. Specify which name style you prefer.

Add Individual Merge Fields

1. Click/tap where you want to add the field.
2. Click the down arrow on the Insert Merge Field button.
3. Select a specific field.

Preview & Complete

1. Go to Mailings.
2. Click Preview Results.
3. Choose Next or Previous to navigate through records.
4. Go to Finish & Merge.
5. Click Print Documents or Send E-mail Messages.

Best Practices

Obviously, this can be a bit of a complicated process, so keep these tips in mind to ensure everything works properly:

• Column names must match field names. E.g., if you want to use the recipient’s first name, you need separate columns for first and last names, rather than one for full names.
• The data you want to draw from the spreadsheet must be on the first page of the Excel workbook.
• Specific types of data (currencies, times, postal codes, etc.), must be formatted in a way that Word can recognize. Use Excel’s format feature to be consistent.
• Your spreadsheet must be stored locally (not in the cloud).
• Any final edits or changes must be made before you connect the spreadsheet to Word.

By following these steps, you can quickly personalize a vast quantity of documents without having to type out each name and address manually.

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