How to do a mail merge outlook 2010

A classic task! Mail merge in Outlook 2010 allows you to send personalized emails to a group of contacts using a template and a data source. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you do a mail merge in Outlook 2010:

Prerequisites:

  1. You have Outlook 2010 installed on your computer.
  2. You have a list of contacts in Outlook that you want to send the email to.
  3. You have a template (e.g., a Word document) that you want to use as the basis for your email.

Step 1: Prepare your data source

  1. Open Outlook 2010 and go to the "Contacts" folder.
  2. Select the contacts you want to send the email to. You can select multiple contacts by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking on each contact.
  3. Right-click on the selected contacts and choose "Export" > "Export to a file" > "Comma Separated Values (CSV)".
  4. Save the CSV file to a location on your computer.

Step 2: Create a mail merge template

  1. Open Microsoft Word 2010 (or any other word processing software that supports mail merge).
  2. Create a new document or open an existing one that you want to use as the template for your email.
  3. Go to the "Mailings" tab in the ribbon and click on "Start Mail Merge" > "Step-by-Step Mail Merge Wizard".
  4. Follow the wizard to set up the mail merge. You'll need to specify the data source (the CSV file you exported earlier), the document type (email), and the recipient list.

Step 3: Set up the mail merge

  1. In the "Mail Merge" window, select the "Use an existing list" option and browse to the CSV file you exported earlier.
  2. Click "OK" to continue.
  3. In the "Select recipients" window, select the contacts you want to send the email to. You can choose to send the email to all contacts or select specific contacts based on criteria like first name, last name, or email address.
  4. Click "OK" to continue.

Step 4: Customize the template

  1. In the Word document, you'll see placeholders for the recipient's information (e.g., [First Name], [Last Name], [Email Address]).
  2. Customize the template by replacing these placeholders with the actual data from your contacts. You can use the "Insert Merge Field" button on the "Mailings" tab to insert the fields.
  3. Add any additional text, images, or formatting you want to include in the email.

Step 5: Preview and send the email

  1. Click "Preview Results" to see how the email will look with the recipient's information inserted.
  2. Review the email to ensure it looks correct and make any necessary changes.
  3. Click "Finish & Merge" to send the email to the selected contacts.

That's it! Your mail merge is complete, and you've sent personalized emails to your contacts using Outlook 2010.