Mail Merge in Microsoft word

Mail Merge in word:

At times when u have to send many emails (in hundreds and above- mass mailing or bulk mailing or whatever you call it ) and that too in a customized manner, it’s really tough to type each and every mail and is time consuming also. I had to send customized mails to some 400 people. Well at that time the mail merge option came to my rescue. So I am going to give a tutorial on mail merge technique available in Microsoft word. You would mainly require Microsoft Word and Outlook. I have tried to write this tutorial covering all the basics assuming user is new to word.And also click on the pictures to get an enhanced better clarity picture if you want a better understanding of it.

Ok enough of theory!! Let’s get into the details!!

First open Microsoft word by clicking the start menu, then all programs, then Microsoft office, then Microsoft word. I am using here Microsoft word 2010. And then an interface like this appears.

If you can see on the top there are many tabs like home, Page layout, Mailings etc.

Now we are going to use the Mailings tab. click the Mailing tab and then below the tabbed row (the home, Page layout, Mailings etc. ) there are many buttons like Envelopes , Labels, Start Mail merge, Select Recipients etc. the interface is something like this. Click on the Start Mail merge , a drop down menu (It’s a menu that just comes down when you click something like a button) like the one shown below comes up and then click step by step Mail merge wizard that is the last item on that drop down menu

After selecting it you will get a pane (A rectangular box with a set of options and buttons etc.)

There are options that one has to specify to Microsoft word .First it asks you what type of mails you are going to actually send say Emails or Letters etc. using the radio Buttons (The ones with a no. of options and you need to select the option by clicking on the circle located besides the option) that are located below the line that says select the document type. I am going to select Email messages. And then click Next : Starting Document located at the bottom of the pane below Step 1 of 6. You can always come back and modify any step in the wizard. So after clicking the Next: Starting Document you will get an interface like this .

Now you need to specify the default template of your mail. U can type in the default message that you would be sending to all the recipients in common. For example:

Hello Mr.XXX

We are pleased to announce that you have been selected in to our company. Your test score are as follows

Aptitude: AAA

English: EEE

Thanks

Head of Recruitment

Here if you note my example carefully, the statements like Hello, We are pleased to announce … etc. is all common for all the recipients. But XXX (the name), AAA (Aptitude marks), EEE(English marks) are all customized or in other words it is different for different recipient.

You will type here what is common for all recipients here. Word also lets you use an existing template or an existing document that you have already typed in. I am going to choose use the current document by typing in my default message here but leaving space for those terms that are customized, like the one below.

Now select next: Select Recipients located on the bottom of the pane below step 2 of 6. You can also click previous to go back and modify options that you have specified in Step 1.

After you click next, you get into step 3 where you need to specify the Recipient list. Word gives you options of getting the source here. You can select it from a database like an excel file, or sql database by selecting the use existing list. You can also just type in a new list.

For simplicity’s sake I am going to demonstrate using Microsoft Excel database. You can also type in a new list which is also very simple enough. On clicking Type a new list you will get a small link that says create just below the radio buttons (In Blue color) .Click on it. You will get a very user friendly interface which ask you the details of the recipients to be fed like first name, email etc. There are buttons for Adding entry, Deleting an entry, creating a customized field(The meaning is the columns which are not available by default like the English and aptitude marks that we used are not given by default they have to be specified manually).

Getting into the excel database further, In the database that you have say in Microsoft Excel , make sure you have all the customizable details of the recipient that you want to enter besides the email id column and also the field names like S.NO, Email Name etc( those words or tags) are specified in the first row. Below is my sample database that I will be using to demonstrate. Look at how I have specified the details.

The first column contains the serial no, next email id, name, Aptitude marks and English marks.

Now I click the use existing database. I click browse, an interface opens asking the path of the database and then select the file and click open. Then select the sheet that you have your database in and then another interface pops up where you can customize your import data by selecting what data you want to import, sorting etc. Then click ok. After it has been successfully added you will see that below the radio buttons there will be a word saying Currently, your recipients are selected from : [sheet no] in filename.xlsx where sheet no and file name are the ones that you selected .

Then proceed to the next section by clicking the next: Write your email message

Here comes the fun part. Now if you look at the side pane you will have lot of options like address block, greeting line etc. which are the default customizable things. I prefer doing it other than default.

Place your cursor where you want to type in the customizable item, say in our case the Name has to come after Mr. So I place the cursor next to Mr. Now on the top, below the tabbed row, there is a button that says insert merged field. If you click that you will get a drop down displaying the fields like S.No, Name, Email etc. the ones imported from excel sheet before. Click on name.

You will see that the line first line changes like this

Hello Mr.«Name»

Similarly do this aptitude by clicking the cursor just after aptitude, Click insert merge field and then select aptitude. This procedure is repeated for English marks also.

Your full message becomes like this:

Hello Mr.«Name»

We are pleased to announce that you have been selected in to our company . Your test score are as follows

Aptitude: «Apitude»

English: «English»

Thanks

Head of Recruitment

Then click next: Preview your email message located at the bottom of the pane.

In this step you can preview the messages which are customized for each recipient. You can view each recipient’s mail, by clicking next and the previous or using find recipient located in the top section of the pane. There are also options available for excluding this recipient etc., Edit recipient list located in the pane. The interface appears like this:

Click on next: Complete the Merge. You can also go back to any of the previous steps by using the previous link located below next.

We come to the last part of Mail merge that is step 6

In the last part you have to send these mails using outlook. If you look at the pane,there is option available called Electronic mail. Click that and the following interface appears.

In the to: column we need to select the field where the email ID is located. In the example I have specified the email ID’s in the column titled Email. So I select that. There are also additional options like subject line and how you want to send the mail as an attachment, in plain text mode or HTML mode. Etc. As soon as you click ok the mails will be put to Microsoft outlooks outbox and the mails will start to dispatch.

You can also create individual letters by selecting the letters option ,then printing them or you can also choose labels, Envelopes etc.

PS: I don’t intend to publicize spamming. Please don’t use it as a means of spamming others inbox

So thats all about Mail merge basics. Do comment if you have any doubts!!!

Posted in: Microsoft office