Personalize Word documents with the Mail Merge toolbar

by Mary Ann Richardson | Apr 25, 2006 7:00:00 AM

Tags: Word processors, Microsoft Office, Mary Ann Richardson, Mail Merge, Microsoft Word, toolbar, handout, Microsoft Office Suite Word Tips Newsletter

Takeaway: Forget the form letters—Mail Merge is a handy tool for personalizing handouts, business documents, or anything you'd like to distribute by name. Mary Ann Richardson tells about how to use this classic Word tool in a not-so-familiar way.

Word's Mail Merge feature isn't just for creating form letters and address labels; you can use it to quickly personalize virtually any document—no matter how many copies you need to send or print.

For example, suppose you are compiling a set of handouts for a seminar and would like to add a page that welcomes each participant by name to the event. You have created a list of the participants in an Excel file (called Seminar Attendees) with the following column field headers: Attendee_Name, Telephone_No., and E-mail_Address. Follow these steps:

1. Click in your Word document where you want the attendee's name to appear on the first page of the handouts.
2. Right-click the toolbar area and select Mail Merge to display the Mail Merge toolbar.
3. In the Mail Merge toolbar, select the Open Data Source button.
4. Navigate to the Seminar Attendees file and click Open.
5. Select the name of the worksheet that contains the data.
6. Select the First Row Of Data Contains Column Headers check box, and click OK.
7. Click the Insert Merge Fields button in the Mail Merge toolbar.
8. Click Attendee_Name, Insert, and then Close.
9. Click the Merge To Printer button.

Word will print a personalized set of handouts for each attendee.

If you learn that two people on the list cancelled, there is no need to have Word print their handouts. Before printing, click the Mail Merge Recipients button in the Mail Merge toolbar, and clear the check mark from the records of the people who will not attend the seminar.

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