Using Mail Merge to Personalize Form Letters
By far the most common mail merge scenario involves a form letter, a database, and a printer. You have a database of names and addresses, most likely in an Outlook Contacts list, but possibly in the form of an Access database, Excel list, or simple tab-delimited format. And you have a form letter (or at least an idea of what you want to write). That's all you need: In Word-speak, you have a data source and a main merge document. The rest is just juggling.
The general procedure goes like this (you'll get additional details and important suggestions for each of these steps in the rest of this chapter):
Pick a document, or create a new one, to use as the "merge document"—the boilerplate skeleton that will drive the merge. Then attach a data source—the list or database to be merged—to the form letter.
Note
You can't just type the << and >> marks: Word has to insert them for you, via buttons in the Mail Merge Wizard.
If you want to exclude certain records from the merge, or sort them so that the letters print in a particular sequence (ZIP Code order, for example), use the Mail Merge Wizard's Edit Recipient List option to set them up.
On the Mail Merge Wizard's final pane, click the Edit individual letters option so Word will merge the form letters to a new file, and save the new merged file. Before you print the file, go through it and make sure it doesn't contain any surprises. When you're satisfied that everything is correct, start printing.
Tip from 
Long merge print jobs can pose all sorts of mechanical challenges, from toner cartridges running down to buffer overflows to massive paper jams. If the merged file contains more than a few hundred pages, consider printing a hundred or two at a time (choose File, Print, and enter a range in the Pages box).
For important mailings, keep the merged file handy until the mailing has been delivered to the post office—or better yet, until you're certain that most addressees have received their copies.
The merged document consists of multiple sections—one section per input record. That can cause unexpected problems if you try to use an advanced technique to get particular pages to print.
→ If you get stuck working on multiple sections, see "Formatting Documents by Section".
Creating the Form Letter
When creating a main merge document, all Word's tools are at your disposal. You can adjust formatting, insert pictures, create headers and footers, add tables and fields, and work with objects in the drawing layer. For example, you might choose to insert your company's logo in the letter (see Figure 20.2), or use a callout AutoShape to draw attention to a specific selling point.
Figure 20.2. The second step of the Mail Merge Wizard, for form letters, has you put together a main merge document.
→ To work with AutoShapes, see "Working with AutoShapes".
When you're satisfied with the content of your form letter, choose Next: Select Recipients at the bottom of the task pane, and start adding merge data.
Specifying a Source for Names and Addresses
After you have the static part of the form letter complete, you have to tell Word where to pick up the data that will be merged. In fact, at this point, Word just needs the data field names—last name, first name, address, and so on—but the Mail Merge Wizard takes advantage of the moment to have you select the data source.
Tip from 
It's an often-overlooked point, but the biggest problem you're likely to encounter at this juncture is the lack of a specific data field, or a poorly defined field. For example, if your form letter demands an "Amount Due" in each letter, you better have a data file handy that includes an "Amount Due" for each customer.
The Mail Merge Wizard gives you three choices:
Use an Existing List— If you have an existing data source, whether it's a table in a Word document, a list in an Excel workbook, or an Access database, use this option. If the first row of the Word table or Excel list includes field names (Last Name, First Name, and so on), you'll be able to merge immediately. Click Browse and retrieve the list.
Select from Outlook Contacts— Make this choice and Word imports the data directly from Outlook. Click Choose Contacts Folder and pick the Contacts list that you want to use (see Figure 20.3).
Figure 20.3. The Mail Merge List of Recipients is generated from your Outlook Contacts list. Click the appropriate column heading to sort the list.
Type a New List— This option (see Figure 20.4) brings up a useful Data Form that allows you to create your own merge database on-the-fly. If you want to modify the field names and their order, click the Customize button.
Figure 20.4. The New Address List allows you to build a merge data document on-the-fly. The address list is an .mdb file that you can edit with Access.
Placing Data Fields Within Your Document
Now that Word knows what data you're going to use, it can help you put merge data into your document. Data fields represent the link between your form letter and the data source. For example, if you have a data source field called Last Name, Word replaces every occurrence of the field <<Last Name>> in the form letter with the Last Name data in the current record of the data source.
The easiest way to insert data fields into your form letter is via Step 4 of the Mail Merge Wizard. Place the insertion point wherever you want a data field to appear, click Insert Merge Field, and choose the field you need. Word has a particularly helpful merge field called Address block, which you can use to overcome several problems that are commonly encountered when importing Outlook Contacts data into Word (see Figure 20.5).
Figure 20.5. Word now has the capability to suppress the country name for specific countries during a mail merge.
Remember that you have to provide the punctuation if it isn't included in the data source. A typical letter opening might look like this:
<<AddressBlock>>
Dear <<Title>> <<Last>>:
Tip from 
You can put the same data field in the form letter as often as you like. If you're preparing a promotional letter to customers in a specific region, for example, you might include the <<City>> field in the address block and in the text of the letter itself: "All our customers who live in <<City>> are entitled to an extra discount this month only."
Previewing Mail Merge Results
To see how the merge will progress, start by having Word show you what the result will be when you merge live data with your form letter. To do so, go on to Step 5 of the Mail Merge Wizard, and click the Next Record button repeatedly to see how the records appear (see Figure 20.6).
Figure 20.6. Word lets you preview your form letter with live data, stepping through each data source record.
Use this preview to check for gross errors:
Look for incorrect fields—for example, those using <<First>> where you really wanted <<Last>>.
Identify unreliable data source information; if half of your data source records don't have an entry in the <<Title>> field, for example, you need to find a way to work around the problem.
If you see any parts of the merge that just don't look right—if some of the merged letters flop over to two pages, for example—click Edit Recipient List and try to jury- rig the data so it fits.
When all looks well, go on to Step 6 in the wizard, and click Edit Individual Letters. Before you print the resulting document, which has all the merged letters head-to-toe, examine it closely for any unexpected and unwelcome merge results.
Tip from 
In general, you should avoid merging directly to the printer. Creating a merge file first lets you easily recover from mechanical disasters—you can reprint letters 1378 to 1392, for example, if the printer runs out of toner or the person carrying the envelopes to the post office drops them in the mud.