From the course: Word: Mail Merge in Depth

Word mail merge: The basics

From the course: Word: Mail Merge in Depth

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Word mail merge: The basics

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- [Narrator] Here's the quick overview of how mail merge works. We begin with a primary document that we create, always, in Microsoft Word. We then combine that with some structured data that was usually created elsewhere. Perhaps a table from a database, a table from Excel, some contacts from Outlook. We use that data source along with the primary Word document to create multiple personalized letters. One for each row in the data source. In Word, mail merge requires two separate files, a Word document and a data source, 99.9% of the time, and we'll talk about that other 1/10 of 1% towards the end of the course. The first file is a Word document that contains information that will be the same in every letter as well as instructions on where to place variable data, the data that is different from each letter and comes to us from that data source. The second file is that data source. In this case, part of a table from Excel. We'll use the commands in the mail merge feature in Word to merge these two files together. Our data source includes records for five people, Michelle, Nehru, Pearl, Rafael, and Shellie, and we will get five letters, each customized, each personalized for Michelle, Nehru, Pearl, Rafael, and Shellie. By combining Word with a data source, we can also use mail merge to generate customized email messages that we will send from Outlook where each recipient receives a customized email addressed to them and sent only to them rather than being part of a group that receives something through CC or BCC, and you don't have to buy a separate service or a separate piece of software in order to do this. We also have a third type of mail merge called a directory merge that's used to create a list or directory. For example, we could take this same table from Excel and create a phone list in Word. Rather than creating five different emails or five different letters, we'd simply be creating one directory. Whenever you find yourself creating multiple documents whether it be letters or email messages or even a directory that uses a set of data or you're creating a document and typing over or copying and pasting names and addresses, whether you're doing this in Word or doing this in Outlook, that represents an opportunity for you to save time by using Word mail merge.

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