How do i mail merge a letter from excel
Mailing merging a letter from Excel is a great way to personalize your letters and save time. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you do it:
Prerequisites:
- You have an Excel spreadsheet with the data you want to use for the mailing merge.
- You have a Word document or a template with the letter you want to mail merge.
- You have Microsoft Word installed on your computer.
Step 1: Prepare your Excel spreadsheet
- Open your Excel spreadsheet and make sure it has the following columns:
- Name (or any other column you want to use for personalization)
- Address (street, city, state, zip)
- Any other columns you want to use for personalization (e.g., company name, title, etc.)
- Make sure the data is organized and formatted correctly.
Step 2: Create a Word document or template
- Open Microsoft Word and create a new document or use an existing template.
- Type the letter you want to mail merge, using placeholders for the personalization fields (e.g., [Name], [Address], etc.).
Step 3: Set up the mail merge
- Go to the "Mailings" tab in Word.
- Click on "Select Recipients" and then "Use an Existing List".
- Browse to your Excel spreadsheet and select it.
- Click "OK" to import the data into Word.
Step 4: Map the fields
- In the "Mailings" tab, click on "Match Fields" to map the Excel columns to the Word placeholders.
- Select the Excel column that corresponds to each Word placeholder (e.g., [Name] to the "Name" column, [Address] to the "Address" column, etc.).
Step 5: Merge the documents
- Click on "Finish & Merge" in the "Mailings" tab.
- Select "Edit Individual Documents" to create a separate document for each recipient.
- Word will merge the data from your Excel spreadsheet with the letter template, creating a unique document for each recipient.
Step 6: Save and print
- Save each merged document as a separate file (e.g., "John Doe Letter.docx").
- Print the documents or save them as PDFs.
Tips and Variations:
- You can also use other mail merge tools, such as Microsoft Outlook or specialized software like Mail Merge Toolkit.
- If you have a large number of recipients, you may want to consider using a mail merge service or outsourcing the task to a professional.
- You can also use mail merge to create envelopes, labels, and other documents.