Hints for Mail Merge

Where to get mail Merge Help

Mail Herge Help options Use Word Help: Click on the Help menu or tap the F1 key.

Each version of Word has a slightly different way of doing mail merge and a different help.

For Word 2003, type "mail merge" in Search for: box At Right is Help for Word 2003.

and Mail Herge Help options will send you to excellent Microsoft tutorial son Mail Merge.

There are also several other Tutorials on the Web.

	Where to get Mail Merge Help
	Advice on proper format for Business Letters
	What to Submit
	How to print the data source
	How to Upload and download to your briefcase
	Steps for Mail Merge with Word 2003
	Legislator Letter Assignment

Advice on proper format for Business Letters:

	www.cs.appstate.edu/~egp/1410_archive/Word97/bl_eg_pics.html
	http://www.io.com/~hcexres/tcm1603/acchtml/complaintx5a_non.html
	www.gmu.edu/departments/writingcenter/letter.html
	www.grossmont.net/sandia.tuttle/businessletter.html
	www.cyberbee.com/science/buslet.html
	esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa041399.htm
	www.mc.maricopa.edu/~rchristian/format.htm
	writing.colostate.edu/references/documents/bletter/index.cfm
	www.saintrochtree.com/zones/homeworkers/articles/2001-01-14-11.htm
	www.angelfire.com/nj3/tally/letter.html#Nabisco

All letters should have:

Letterhead with

your name

address

phone

email address

The date

a proper inside address block, most effectively obtained using the 4^th icon on the Mail Merge tool bar, which has:

the person's title first name and last name

company

street address

city , (comma) state and zip

For example
Mr. Joe student
123 MailStreet
Cranford, NJ 07016

A salutation (aka Greeting Line), most effectively obtained using the 5^th icon on the Mail Merge tool bar, , of Dear Title Last name: (NO first name in salutation!) and terminated with a colon since this is a businesses letter.

What to Submit

To get the mail merge assignment graded (or send any mail merge to someone else) you must provide BOTH

	the form letter, which is always a Microsoft Word document, and
	the data source, which is usually an Access database, .mdb, in Office 2003 but can be a MS Word .doc or Excel .xls spreadsheet

How to print the data source

Either

Use Microsoft Access Report

Scrape the screen

	Display the data source by clicking the Mail Merge Recipients icon
	Make the window wide enough by dragging on left and right edge
	Move the fields you want to see to the left
	Make fields smaller if necessary
	Alt + Print Scrn (key on top right of keyboard) to copy that window to the clipboard
	Open a new Word document
	Paste the clipboard contents
	Use Page setup to print in Landscape more
	Select and size the names so they fill most of the paper
	Add a Header with your name and the date
	Print it

How to Upload and download to your briefcase

For this assignment upload both files to your briefcase but send one email stating that the files are there.

To use the pair of mail merge files again you need to download each, mdb first, and then open the Word doc.

Download the data source and selecting Save from the dialog box
(I Save it on my Desktop so it will be easy to find, but you can chose another folder.
Select Close. from the next dialog box.
Download the form letter by clicking on its name and selecting Save.
But, this time, select Open from the "Download Complete, 2nd, dialog box.
Sometime Word cannot match the form letter to the data source and displays

Choose Find Data Source and find the file in the folder where you saved it in step 1. (if you store it on the Desktop, that should be easy) The form letter should open in Word merged with the first record of the data source.

Steps to do a mail Merge using Word 2003

The following is a step by step, but various versions of Word differ, so be creative:

	Start with a blank MS Word document
	Type your name, address, and email on top like fancy letterhead stationary.
	Insert the date
	You will be working with 2 files: the main document which is the letter, it is a MS Word merge document and the data file that contains field names like first name and town and all the field values like Sally and Cranford this can be another MS Word document that contains a table or an Access file or an Excel spreadsheet
	Choose Tools menu, select Letters and Mailing, then Mail merge item
	For Office XP, the Wizard in the Task pane to the right asks the following questions
	Step 1: Choose Form Letters and Next
	Step 2: Choose Current Window and Next
	Step 3: Choose Tpe New List and Create
	Type what is constant is every letter like "Dear " (note space after the Dear)
	Click on , 5^th icon on the Mail Merge tool bar which say Insert Merge Field when hovered over, and select a field name whenever you want to include stuff that is unique to each letter like the person's name and address, etc. You will see the field name with chevrons <<>> on either side.
	To see the values click on the ABC icon on the Merge tool bar, and then use the right and left arrows (First, Previous, Next, Last) to see each letter.
	Remember to put spaces between your fields, just like you would have a space between Sally and Jones.
	To print only some letters and not others, like just the folk who live in Cranford, choose and check records to be printed or uncheck those to remain in file but not be pritned this time.
	To print the letters, choose the icon on the Merge toolbar that has the tiny printer

Conceptual picture of the mail merge process Microsoft Word has an excellent Tutorial on Mail Merge and there are several more listed on this site's tutorial page.