How to do a mail merge google sheets
Mail merge in Google Sheets! It's a powerful feature that allows you to combine data from a Google Sheet with a template to create personalized documents, such as letters, emails, or reports. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to do a mail merge in Google Sheets:
Prerequisites:
- You have a Google Sheet with the data you want to use for the mail merge.
- You have a template document (e.g., a Google Doc, Microsoft Word document, or a PDF) that you want to use as the basis for the mail merge.
Step 1: Prepare your data
- Open your Google Sheet and make sure it's organized in a table format with columns for the data you want to use for the mail merge.
- Ensure that the data is in a format that can be easily merged, such as a table with headers and rows.
Step 2: Create a template
- Create a new Google Doc or open an existing one that you want to use as the template for your mail merge.
- Set up the template with the placeholders for the data you want to merge. For example, if you're creating a letter, you might have placeholders for the recipient's name, address, and message.
Step 3: Set up the mail merge
- In your Google Sheet, go to the "Tools" menu and select "Script editor" (or press Ctrl+Enter).
- In the script editor, click on the "Create" button and select "Mail Merge" from the dropdown menu.
- Follow the prompts to set up the mail merge, including selecting the template, data range, and output format.
Step 4: Run the mail merge
- Once you've set up the mail merge, click on the "Run" button to execute the merge.
- The script will merge the data from your Google Sheet with the template, creating a new document for each record in your data.
Tips and Variations:
- You can use Google Sheets' built-in functions, such as
CONCATENATE
andREPLACE
, to customize the mail merge. - You can also use Google Apps Script to create more complex mail merge logic, such as conditional statements and loops.
- If you're using a PDF template, you'll need to use a third-party add-on, such as AutoCrat or PDF Mail Merge, to merge the data with the PDF.
- You can also use Google Sheets' "ImportRange" function to merge data from multiple sheets or spreadsheets.
Example:
Suppose you have a Google Sheet with the following data:
Name | Address | Message |
---|---|---|
John | 123 Main St | Hello, how are you? |
Jane | 456 Elm St | Hi, nice to meet you! |
Bob | 789 Oak St | Hi, hope you're doing well! |
You want to create a mail merge to create personalized letters for each recipient. You create a template Google Doc with placeholders for the name, address, and message. You then set up the mail merge in Google Sheets, selecting the template, data range, and output format. When you run the mail merge, Google Sheets will create a new document for each record in your data, merging the data with the template to create personalized letters.
That's it! With these steps, you should be able to do a mail merge in Google Sheets.