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How do I start a mail merge?

You can use the Mail Merge Helper to create form letters, mailing labels, envelopes, or catalogs. The Mail Merge Helper guides you through organizing the address data, merging it into a generic document, and printing the resulting personalized documents.

1. Open or create a main document, which contains the generic information that you want to repeat in each form letter, mailing label, envelope, or catalog.

2. Open or create a data source, which contains the data that varies in the merged documents — for example, the name and address of each recipient of a form letter. The data source can be an existing spreadsheet, database, or text file, or a Word table that you create by using the Mail Merge Helper.

3. In the main document, insert merge fields, which are placeholders that tell Microsoft Word where to insert data from the data source.

4. Merge data from the data source into the main document. Each row (or record) in the data source produces an individual form letter, mailing label, envelope, or catalog item. You can send the merged documents directly to a printer, or to e-mail addresses or fax numbers. Or you can collect the merged documents into a new document so you can review and print them later.