Download Instructions for Mail Merge

INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAIL MERGE
To create a personalised letter to be sent to all the students in our Exams database informing them of
how they have done on their Course in the college and signed by the student's Mentor
There
1.
2.
3.
are 3 steps
We must create a letter - called a form letter.
We must either create or open our data source (the file from which we are going to draw data)
We must merge it (combine it) with a data source (containing the information on individuals to
whom the letters will be sent)
STEP 1 - CREATE FORM LETTER
(i)
Start up Ms Word
(ii) Create a new blank document
(iii) Go to View/Toolbars and ensure the Mail Merge toolbar is ticked on. It contains the tools you
see below. Each will be explained as needed
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
Click on the leftmost button
in the toolbar
You will see the Main Document window
Choose Letters as the document type
Click OK
STEP 2 - OPEN DATA SOURCE
Our data source is the Exam database we have been working on.
(i)
(ii)
Click on the Open Data Source button
Locate the file you want to use ie the Exams database
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
Select the file you want by double-clicking on it
You will now see the tables and queries that are in your database
Choose the table or query that contains the fields you want
Note - if the fields you want are not contained in a single table or query then you may need to
do a special query to ensure that they are all available. In this case we have no table or query
that gives us Student's firstname, lastname, address, course and mentor name so we should go
and do such a query now and save it as Results Letters. The list below is what we have at
present but what we want is not there.
Instructions for Mail Merge
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© Una Dooney, 2006
(vii) Create the relevant query and then go back and Open your Data Source again and choose the
query that you just did as the source. Notice in the second Select Table below you will see the
item Results Letters which you will now select as your Data Source
(viii) Create the letter as follows:
(i) Type the college name and address on the right side of the page followed by today's date
(ii) Return to the left side of the page and click on
the
Insert Merge Field from the toolbar
(iii) This will give you a list of fields to choose from
as shown here
(iv) Select Firstname, then select Surname, then
Address 1 etc, etc
(NOTE - Pressing the Insert button puts the field
onto the page. Pressing Enter also puts the
field onto the page so you may find you are
putting too many fields on the page. Pressing
Enter twice puts the selected field in twice.
Just be careful and get only the fields you want
in your letter. You can rearrange their position
when you are finished inserting all the fields you want. Leave the Course and Mentor Name
fields until you want them further down the letter)
(v) When you have finished the letter it should look like the one below:
Instructions for Mail Merge
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© Una Dooney, 2006
STEP - 3 MERGE THE FORM LETTER AND DATA SOURCE
(ix)
(x)
(xi)
(xii)
(xiii)
(xiv)
(xv)
We will select Merge to New Document by clicking on
We will get this screen which allows us to choose if we
want to merge all records or just some
Choose All
You will now get a document that has a letter
addressed personally to each student showing the
Course and Mentor name for each student
Below you will see examples of the letters
The merged document is a new document which can
be printed now or saved to be printed in the future.
You can limit the number of records to be merged
using numbers in the From and To boxes above for example you could print from record 1 to
record 5 and you will just get letters to the first 5 students
Instructions for Mail Merge
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© Una Dooney, 2006
Instructions for Mail Merge
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© Una Dooney, 2006