Mail merge with google docs

Mail merge with Google Docs! While Google Docs doesn't have a built-in mail merge feature like Microsoft Word, you can still achieve similar results using Google Sheets and Google Docs. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you do a mail merge with Google Docs:

Prerequisites:

Google Sheets: You'll need a Google Sheet to store your data.
Google Docs: You'll need a Google Doc to create your document.
Google Apps Script: You'll need to use Google Apps Script to automate the mail merge process.

Step 1: Prepare your data in Google Sheets

Create a Google Sheet with the following columns:

Column A: First name
Column B: Last name
Column C: Email address
Column D: Document content (e.g., a template with placeholders for names and addresses)

Step 2: Create a Google Doc template

Create a new Google Doc and add placeholders for the data you want to merge. For example:

{{First Name}}
{{Last Name}}
{{Email Address}}

Step 3: Write a Google Apps Script

In your Google Sheet, go to Tools > Script editor. This will open the Google Apps Script editor. Create a new script by clicking on the "Create" button.

In the script editor, paste the following code:

function mailMerge() {
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
  var doc = DocumentApp.openById("YOUR_DOC_ID");
  var data = sheet.getDataRange().getValues();

  for (var i = 1; i < data.length; i++) {
    var row = data[i];
    var firstName = row[0];
    var lastName = row[1];
    var emailAddress = row[2];
    var documentContent = row[3];

    var docBody = doc.getBody();
    docBody.replaceText("{{First Name}}", firstName);
    docBody.replaceText("{{Last Name}}", lastName);
    docBody.replaceText("{{Email Address}}", emailAddress);

    var newDoc = doc.copy();
    newDoc.setName(firstName + " " + lastName);
    newDoc.saveAndClose();
  }
}

Replace "YOUR_DOC_ID" with the ID of your Google Doc.

Step 4: Run the script

Go back to your Google Sheet and click on the "Run" button in the script editor or press Ctrl+Enter. The script will run and create a new Google Doc for each row in your sheet, replacing the placeholders with the corresponding data.

Step 5: Send the documents

You can now send the generated documents to the respective email addresses using Google Apps Script's Gmail service. You'll need to set up a Gmail account and enable the Gmail API in your Google Cloud Console.

Here's an updated version of the script that sends the documents:

function mailMerge() {
  //... (rest of the script remains the same)

  for (var i = 1; i < data.length; i++) {
    //... (rest of the script remains the same)

    var newDoc = doc.copy();
    newDoc.setName(firstName + " " + lastName);
    newDoc.saveAndClose();

    var email = GmailApp.sendEmail(emailAddress, "Your Subject", "Your Message", { attachments: [newDoc.getAs("application/pdf")] });
  }
}

This script will send each document as a PDF attachment to the corresponding email address.

That's it! You've successfully done a mail merge with Google Docs using Google Sheets and Google Apps Script.

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Mail merge with google docs