Word: Letters with Mail Merge (Mac)

Organizations regularly communicate with their patrons by letter, announcement, email and personalized mailshots.  These kinds of communication can also be invaluable for tasks at home such as writing speculative letters to potential employers, family newsletters and sending out party invitations.  Word's mail merge feature can be invaluable in automating all these kinds of communication.

Initially this type of documenting may sound difficult but, far from complicated, it can be incredibly useful and save an awful lot of time.

Each letter/email can contain standard text, which is common to all letters in the batch.  But, what makes mail merge so powerful is the custom content feature which allows you to re-write each document with items, such as name and address, changing on each document, but the majority of text remaining the same.  This is hugely effective in terms of time saved and with the potential for fewer errors.

A mail merge document contains standard text (shown in black) and custom content (in red)

The Mail Merge Process:

Three documents are involved in the creation of mail merge letters, email, labels etc.

1. The Main Document contains the standard text which will be common to all the letters/emails.  For instance a logo, the main body of a letter or the return address on an envelope.  This can be thought of as the template.
2. The Mailing List is the data used to make each letter unique (ie, the red text in the diagram). eg, name, address and date of birth.
3. The Merged Document.  Data is pulled from the mailing list and used to populate the main document and creating the final document.

The Microsoft Support Centre offers help with creating letters, emails, labels and envelopes in Windows and Mac.  Here we will just follow the process for creating letters on the Mac:


STEP ONE:

On the Mailings tab select Start Mail Merge > Letters.

STEP TWO:

Write the body of your letter in the document - the text you want everyone to receive.

STEP THREE:

Again on the Mailings tab, choose Select Recipients > Create a New List.

You will be presented with a dialog box like this:

Word provides you with a list of standard field names.  Using the + and - buttons you can add more fields and remove any you don't find relevant.  The arrow buttons should be moved to put the fields in the order they will be used in your letter.  For instance, I will be showing the company's name and address above the salutation, so the recipient's name (title, first name and surname) can be moved below PostalCode.  I have also removed State, City and Country/Region by selecting each field and clicking the '-' button.  Don't worry that it appears to push the field into the 'New field name' box - just carry on regardless!

STEP FOUR:

Once you are happy with the fields, select 'Create'.  Choose a name under which to save it and press 'Save'.

STEP FIVE:

You will be presented with a list of your fields and can now fill them in for as many customers/potential employers as you need:

After each entry select the '+' button which will create a new set of fields for you - each set of fields will correspond to one letter.  Once you have more than one set of fields, you can move between and edit them using the arrow buttons.

When complete, click OK.

STEP SIX:

Now to add the personalised content:  Place the cursor at the location you would like the first personalised field, eg the first line of the recipient's address.  

From the Mailings tab select Insert Merge Field.

Continue to select the right place in the document, and then the relevant field, until you have inserted all the personalised content.

The personalised data will be enclosed by double chevrons.  Your letter will look something like this:

STEP SEVEN:

On the Mailings tab select Preview Results.  You can use the arrow keys to scroll through the letters.

Here I can see that I inserted the three name fields without space between:

To make any changes, click Preview Results to go back into edit mode.  Here I can put my cursor between the fields and put spaces there.  I may also like to consider removing the Title field altogether, however if I make amendments like this I should check if my other letters still work.

STEP EIGHT:

If you haven't already saved then you should do that now.

You are now ready to print your letters.  From the Mailings tab you should select Finish & Merge > Print Documents and then select Print.

Mail merge is a really powerful tool.  You have used it to print a set of standard letters which can be used to apply for jobs to several employers at once.  But this is just the start.  Mail merge can also be used for emails, labels, mail-shots and envelopes.