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Word 2007 Practice: Create a Data Table and Do a Mail Merge, Part 2 of 2

This will show you how to take the data table you save in Part 1 of this project and merge that data onto mailing labels.

One problem with labels is that people tend to generate the label layout, and then type many pages of mailing address on the labels. That works, but over time, as addresses change, and you add or remove names and address from the labels, well, the labels can end up a mess. The better way to approach it is to type up the mailing information into a data table, where any updating, sorting, or deleting will occur. To get the mailing information onto labels, you perform what’s known as a Mail Merge.

How to do a Mail Merge

1. Start with a New blank Word document.
2. In the Mailings tab, Start Mail Merge group, click Start Mail Merge, then click Labels.
3. The Label Options box will open.
4. Under Label vendors choose Avery US Letter and for the Product number choose 5160.
5. Click OK to finish.
6. The 5160 label layout is added to the document. If you can’t see the label outline, turn on table gridlines: Table Tools tab, Layout tab, Table group, View Gridlines.
7. Next, in the Mailings tab, Start Mail Merge group, click Select Recipients, then click Use Existing List. Direct Word to the file you made in Part 1 (probably in My Documents, maybe called Sample Data for Mail Merge). You’ll see the Next Record code show up on all but the first label.



8. Now in the Mailings tab, Write & Insert Fields group, click Address Block. The Insert Address Block box opens. This is basically for you to verify that the address in the Preview area is laid out correctly. It is correct, so please click OK.
9. An AddressBlock code is inserted on the first label.
10. In the Write & Insert Fields group, click Update Labels. This step will add the AddressBlock code to all the labels.






11. All that’s left to do is either Preview Results (if you’re not sure it’s going to work) or Finish & Merge (if you’re feeling confident). Go ahead and click Preview Results, you should see the five labels laid out.



12. In the Finish group, click on Finish & Merge, then click Edit Individual Documents (Print Documents would send the merged labels directly to the printer.) In the Merge to New Document box, leave All marked, and click OK.
13. A new document with your merged labels opens. You can print from here or save it.

Some people never save merges, they just send it directly to the printer; if something goes wrong they start the merge over. If you’ve done a certain mail merge many times, you should know how it’s going to come out. My feeling is to save the merge with the creation date in the file name. If something goes wrong with the printing, then I can go back to the file and reprint. You would want to make a habit of deleting the old merge results once they’ve been printed and verified correct.

Remember, the point of the merge is to be able to use the most current data, so you don’t want to mistakenly use an old merge with outdated data in it.

You’ll find that the document that you set up the merge in will need to be closed, but don’t save the changes. A mail merge is started over each time you do it, the only file you’ll reuse is the data.

Did everything work for you? Did you have any trouble with this project? If so, leave a note about it in the comments.

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