Mail merge in 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 get started:

Prerequisites:

Familiarity with Google Sheets and Google Docs.
A Google Sheets document with a list of data you want to merge (e.g., names, addresses, etc.).
A Google Docs document where you want to merge the data.

Step 1: Prepare your data in Google Sheets

Create a new Google Sheet or open an existing one.
Set up your data in a table format, with each row representing a single record and each column representing a field (e.g., Name, Address, Email, etc.).
Make sure your data is organized and formatted correctly.

Step 2: Create a Google Docs template

Create a new Google Doc or open an existing one.
Design your document with placeholders for the data you want to merge. For example, you can use the {{ }} syntax to create placeholders for names, addresses, and other fields.
Save your document as a template.

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 = ""; for (var j = 0; j < row.length; j++) { mergedText += template.replace("{{" + j + "}}", row[j]) + "\n"; } doc.getBody().appendParagraph(mergedText); } }


This script will loop through each row in your Google Sheet, replace the placeholders in your Google Docs template with the corresponding data, and append the merged text to the document.

**Step 4: Run the script**

1. Save your script by clicking on "File" > "Save".
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.

**Tips and Variations:**

* To customize the script, you can modify the `template` variable to include more complex placeholder syntax or use regular expressions to match specific patterns.
* You can also use Google Apps Script's `getRange()` method to select specific ranges of cells in your Google Sheet and merge only those rows.
* If you have a large dataset, you may want to consider using a more efficient merging algorithm or optimizing your script for performance.

While this method requires some scripting knowledge, it allows you to achieve mail merge functionality in Google Docs. With a little creativity and experimentation, you can create powerful data-driven documents using Google Sheets and Google Docs!

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Mail merge in google docs