How to do mail merge on existing word document 2016

Mail merge is a powerful feature in Microsoft Word that allows you to combine a main document with a data source, such as an Excel spreadsheet or a database, to create multiple versions of the document with unique information. Here's how to do a mail merge on an existing Word document in Microsoft Word 2016:

Step 1: Prepare your data source

• Open your data source, such as an Excel spreadsheet or a database.
• Make sure the data is organized in a table format with each column representing a field (e.g., name, address, phone number, etc.).
• Save the data source file.

Step 2: Open your Word document

• Open your existing Word document that you want to merge with the data source.
• Make sure the document is in a format that can be edited (e.g.,.docx).

Step 3: Set up the mail merge

• Go to the "Mailings" tab in the ribbon.
• Click on "Select Recipients" and then "Use an Existing List" to select your data source file.
• Choose the file type (e.g., Excel, CSV, etc.) and select the file.
• Click "Open" to import the data source into Word.

Step 4: Designate the merge fields

• In your Word document, highlight the text that you want to replace with data from the data source.
• Go to the "Mailings" tab and click on "Insert Merge Field" to insert a merge field.
• Choose the field from the data source that you want to insert (e.g., name, address, etc.).
• Repeat this process for each field you want to merge.

Step 5: Run the mail merge

• Go to the "Mailings" tab and click on "Finish & Merge" to run the mail merge.
• Choose "Edit Individual Documents" to create a new document for each record in the data source.
• Word will create a new document for each record, replacing the merge fields with the corresponding data from the data source.

Tips and Variations

• You can also use the "Merge to New Document" option to create a new document for each record, rather than editing the original document.
• You can use conditional formatting to control the appearance of the merged documents.
• You can also use mail merge to create envelopes, labels, and other documents.
• If you're using an Excel spreadsheet as your data source, you can use the "Get & Transform Data" feature to connect to the spreadsheet and import the data into Word.