Excel 2016 vba mailmerge

A classic!

Mail Merge in Excel VBA is a powerful feature that allows you to automate the process of creating documents with data from an Excel spreadsheet. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you get started:

Prerequisites:

1. Excel 2016 or later version
2. VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) enabled
3. A data range in your Excel worksheet that you want to use for the mail merge

Step 1: Create a new module

1. Open the Visual Basic Editor by pressing Alt + F11 or navigating to Developer > Visual Basic in the ribbon.
2. In the Visual Basic Editor, click Insert > Module to create a new module.

Step 2: Declare variables and set up the mail merge

1. In the new module, declare the following variables:

   Dim oWord As Object
   Dim oDoc As Object
   Dim oMailMerge As Object
   Dim oDataSource As Object
   Dim oDataRange As Range

2. Set up the mail merge by creating an instance of the Word application and a new document:

   Set oWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
   Set oDoc = oWord.Documents.Add

   Step 3: Set up the data source

3. Set the data source to your Excel worksheet:

   Set oDataRange = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("YourSheetName").Range("YourDataRange")
   Set oDataSource = oWord.CreateDataSource(oDataRange)

   Replace YourSheetName and YourDataRange with the actual name of your worksheet and the range of cells containing the data you want to use for the mail merge.

Step 4: Create the mail merge

1. Create a new mail merge:

   Set oMailMerge = oDoc.MailMerge

2. Set the data source and the document template:

   oMailMerge.OpenDataSource oDataSource
   oMailMerge.OpenTemplate "C:\Path\To\Your\DocumentTemplate.dotx"

   Replace C:\Path\To\Your\DocumentTemplate.dotx with the actual path and name of your document template.

Step 5: Perform the mail merge

1. Perform the mail merge:

   oMailMerge.Execute

   This will create a new document with the merged data.

Step 6: Save and close the document

1. Save the document:

   oDoc.SaveAs "C:\Path\To\Your\OutputDocument.docx"

   Replace C:\Path\To\Your\OutputDocument.docx with the actual path and name of the output document.

2. Close the document:

   oDoc.Close

   Step 7: Clean up

3. Release the objects:

   Set oMailMerge = Nothing
   Set oDataSource = Nothing
   Set oDataRange = Nothing
   Set oDoc = Nothing
   Set oWord = Nothing

   This will ensure that all objects are released and garbage collected.

Tips and Variations:

• You can customize the mail merge by modifying the document template, adding or removing fields, and adjusting the layout.
• You can also use the oMailMerge.DataSource property to specify a different data source, such as a database or a text file.
• If you encounter errors or issues, you can use the On Error statement to trap and handle errors.

I hope this helps you get started with Mail Merge in Excel VBA!