How to do mail merge google docs

Mail merge in 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, Google Docs, and some clever scripting. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you do a mail merge in Google Docs:

Prerequisites:

Familiarity with Google Sheets and Google Docs.
A Google Sheets document with your data (e.g., names, addresses, and other information).
A Google Docs document with a template for your mail merge (e.g., a letter or email template).

Step 1: Prepare your data in Google Sheets

Create a new Google Sheet or open an existing one with your data.
Organize your data into columns, with each column representing a field (e.g., Name, Address, City, State, Zip).
Make sure your data is in a format that can be easily imported into Google Docs (e.g., CSV, Excel).

Step 2: Create a Google Docs template

Create a new Google Doc or open an existing one with your mail merge template.
Design your template with placeholders for the data you want to merge (e.g., {{Name}}, {{Address}}, etc.).
Use the "Insert" menu > "Special characters" to insert placeholders (e.g., {{Name}}).

Step 3: Use Google Apps Script to merge data

Open your Google Sheet and click on "Tools" > "Script editor" to open the Google Apps Script editor.
Create a new script by clicking on "Create" > "Script".

In the script editor, paste the following code:


function mergeData() {
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveSheet();
var doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
var data = sheet.getDataRange().getValues();
var template = doc.getBody().getText();

for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++) { var row = data[i]; var mergedText = template.replace(/{{(.*?)}}/g, function(match, group1) { return row[parseInt(group1.replace(/[{}]/g, ''))]; }); doc.getBody().setText(mergedText); } }


This script will replace the placeholders in your Google Docs template with the corresponding data from your Google Sheet.

**Step 4: Run the script and merge data**

1. Save your script by clicking on the floppy disk icon or pressing Ctrl+S (or Cmd+S on a Mac).
2. Go back to your Google Sheet and click on "Run" > "mergeData" to execute the script.
3. The script will merge the data from your Google Sheet into your Google Docs template, replacing the placeholders with the actual data.

**Tips and Variations:**

* To merge data into a specific section of your Google Docs template, use the `doc.getBody().getChild(index).setText(mergedText)` method, where `index` is the position of the section you want to merge.
* To merge data into multiple sections, use a loop to iterate through the sections and merge the data accordingly.
* To use conditional logic in your mail merge, you can use the `if` statement in your script to check conditions and merge data accordingly.
* To save the merged documents, you can use the `doc.saveAndClose()` method.

That's it! With these steps, you should be able to perform a mail merge in Google Docs using Google Sheets and Google Apps Script.

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How to do mail merge google docs