Mail Merge In Word 2007

Mail merge in Microsoft Word 2007 is a great facility you can use to create mass documents in very efficient and quickest way. You want to creat invitation labels or mass letters? Use the mail merge. It is very simple to use with great advantages.

In Microsoft Word 2007, mail merge has its own menu, that is Mailings. If you click the Mailings menu, you will see all icons you need to use the mail merge. But, it may be quite confusing if you have never done mail merge before. So, here is the best yet simplest way to use the mail merge in Word 2007 for you to create mass documents.

The basic about mail merge is that you will have 2 things linking each other: a document and a database. In the database you create and store data that you want to put into your document. Each data group will have a unique heading called field which when linked to your document will be displayed on that document. That is the basic principle about mail merge in Word 2007.

When I create a mail merge, I usually create my database first using Excel 2007. It is because in Excel it is easier to enter the data. That is me.

But, that is not really important whether you first create your database and then your document or the other way around. Of course, you can create your Word 2007 document first and then your database.

So here how to create your database with Excel 2007;

1. Open a new Excel 2007 worksheet;
2. On the top most row, create your field name such as First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Address, Phone Number, etc. Make sure to begin from the most upper left corner cell and each cell in the first row is for a single field name. You can make that field names bold, so it looks different from the data underneath them;
3. Type in your appropriate data under each of the field names.
4. When finished, save this database as an Excel worksheet (with an .xlsx extension) in a folder.

After that, create your Word document.

Now is to create you labels, letters, envelopes, or just a normal document with Microsoft Word 2007. In a mail merge document, you will likely to have some texts which are static (not linked to your database) and some are dynamic which are linked to your database.

1. Open a Word 2007 new document;
2. Click Mailings menu;
3. Click Select Recipients and then Use Existing List;
4. In the appearing windows, select your Excel worksheet that you have created before as your data source;
5. Select the sheet where you typed in your data;
6. Click Insert Merge Field and select the field name you want to use;
7. Click Preview Results to see how it will look like.Make adjustment as needed (such as spaces, comma, etc.);
8. Type in the rest of your document;
9. Click Finish & Merge;
10. Click Individual Document which will give a new document. This is the final document which you can edit, save, and print.

That is the simplest and quickest way of using mail merge in Word 2007.