How to set up mail merge in word from excel

Mail merge is a powerful feature in Microsoft Word that allows you to combine data from an Excel spreadsheet with a Word document template to create personalized documents, such as letters, labels, or reports. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to set up a mail merge in Word from Excel:

Prerequisites:

  1. You have Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel installed on your computer.
  2. You have a Word document template (.docx) and an Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx) ready to use.

Step 1: Prepare your Excel spreadsheet

  1. Open your Excel spreadsheet and make sure it contains the data you want to use for the mail merge.
  2. Select the entire data range (e.g., A1:E100) and go to the "Data" tab in the ribbon.
  3. Click on "From Text" and then "Text to Columns" to separate the data into individual columns.
  4. Make sure the data is organized in a table format with headers in the first row.

Step 2: Create a new Word document

  1. Open Microsoft Word and create a new document.
  2. Go to the "Mailings" tab in the ribbon and click on "Start Mail Merge" > "Step-by-Step Mail Merge Wizard".
  3. In the Mail Merge Wizard, select "Write & Insert Fields" and then "Use an Existing List" > "Excel Spreadsheet".

Step 3: Connect to your Excel spreadsheet

  1. In the "Select Table" dialog box, browse to the location of your Excel spreadsheet and select it.
  2. Choose the worksheet and range of cells that contains the data you want to use for the mail merge.
  3. Click "OK" to connect to the Excel spreadsheet.

Step 4: Map the fields

  1. In the "Select Fields" dialog box, select the fields you want to use for the mail merge.
  2. Map the fields to the corresponding columns in your Excel spreadsheet.
  3. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.

Step 5: Insert the merge fields

  1. In your Word document, place your cursor where you want to insert the merge field.
  2. Go to the "Mailings" tab in the ribbon and click on "Insert Merge Field".
  3. Select the field you want to insert from the drop-down list.
  4. Repeat this process for each field you want to insert.

Step 6: Preview and merge

  1. Go to the "Mailings" tab in the ribbon and click on "Preview Results" to see how the mail merge will look.
  2. Make any necessary adjustments to the layout or formatting.
  3. Click on "Finish & Merge" to merge the data with the Word document template.
  4. Choose the output format (e.g., PDF, Word document, or email).

That's it! With these steps, you should be able to set up a mail merge in Word from Excel.