Can you do a mail merge on google docs
While Google Docs doesn't have a built-in mail merge feature like Microsoft Word, you can still achieve similar results using a combination of Google Sheets and Google Docs. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you do a mail merge on Google Docs:
Step 1: Prepare your data in Google Sheets
Create a Google Sheet with the following columns:
- Column A: First name
- Column B: Last name
- Column C: Email address
- Column D: Address (if you want to include a physical address in your document) *...and any other columns you need for your mail merge
Enter your data in the sheet, making sure to format the columns correctly.
Step 2: Create a Google Doc template
Create a new Google Doc and add the text and formatting you want to use for your mail merge. You can use placeholders for the fields you want to replace with data from your Google Sheet.
For example, if you want to include the first name and last name in your document, you can use the following placeholders:
- {{First Name}}
- {{Last Name}}
Step 3: Use Google Sheets to populate the Google Doc
Go back to your Google Sheet and select the entire data range (A1:D100, for example). Then, go to the "Tools" menu and select "Script editor".
In the script editor, paste the following code:
function populateDoc() {
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
var doc = DocumentApp.openById("YOUR_DOC_ID");
var body = doc.getBody();
var dataRange = sheet.getDataRange();
var data = dataRange.getValues();
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
var row = data[i];
var firstName = row[0];
var lastName = row[1];
var email = row[2];
var address = row[3];
body.replaceText("{{First Name}}", firstName);
body.replaceText("{{Last Name}}", lastName);
body.replaceText("{{Email}}", email);
body.replaceText("{{Address}}", address);
}
}
Replace "YOUR_DOC_ID" with the ID of your Google Doc.
Step 4: Run the script
Go back to your Google Sheet and click on the "Run" button in the script editor. The script will populate your Google Doc with the data from your sheet.
Step 5: Save and download your merged document
Once the script has finished running, you can save and download your merged document as a PDF or Word document.
That's it! You've successfully done a mail merge on Google Docs using Google Sheets and a script.
Note: This method requires some basic knowledge of Google Sheets and Google Apps Script. If you're not comfortable with coding, you may want to consider using a third-party add-on or service that offers mail merge capabilities.