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Mail Merge

This document discusses mail merge, which is a tool that allows mass production of letters, envelopes, labels, and other documents by merging information from a main document with a data source file. It explains that to perform a mail merge, you create a main document and a data source file containing fields of information like names and addresses. The mail merge tool then automatically merges the common text from the main document with the variable fields for each recipient record in the data source file, producing individualized copies of the document. Planning the appropriate structure and fields for the data source file is important to ensure each record has the necessary fields to be merged properly.

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200 views13 pages

Mail Merge

This document discusses mail merge, which is a tool that allows mass production of letters, envelopes, labels, and other documents by merging information from a main document with a data source file. It explains that to perform a mail merge, you create a main document and a data source file containing fields of information like names and addresses. The mail merge tool then automatically merges the common text from the main document with the variable fields for each recipient record in the data source file, producing individualized copies of the document. Planning the appropriate structure and fields for the data source file is important to ensure each record has the necessary fields to be merged properly.

Uploaded by

Gautam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Mail merge

Introduction
• Daily activities of many organization
occasionally require preparation of
letters or reports for mass production.
• It used to be a cumbersome task to send
a one-page letter to as many as 500
different recipients who had different
address and pieces of information.
Introduction (continued)
• What was generally done was to type a
master letter, which is photocopied to as
many copies as the number of recipients.
• Thereafter, a type writer would be used to
type the names and addresses of the
different recipients.
Introduction (continued)
• Alternatively, on the computer, information
about each recipient will be typed on the letter,
printed and cleaned to give room for information
about a second recipient, etc.
• However, the mail merge tool in many word
processing packages such as word perfect and
MS Word has made life easier and work efficient
by automating the mass mailing process.
Introduction (continued)
• It is now possible to write the same letter to a
number of people without typing the original
letter more than once.
• What you need to do is to create a form file
(letter) and a data file, which contains name and
address of the people you want send letter to.
Introduction (continued)
• You can then merge the two files to create a
third file, which contains all the merged letters.
• The text of the third letter is same on each copy,
but the names and addresses are different.
• The result of merge will be a third document.
Introduction (continued)
• The merge tool allows you to mass-produce
letters, envelopes, mailing labels, contacts,
phone lists, memos or other documents.
• To create a merge, you create two kinds of files
(a data text or table file, and a form file) and
then merge them.
Introduction (continued)
• The merge reproduce copies of the form files
with each copy containing specific information
from each record in the data file.
• Each piece of variable information is called a
field.
Data sources
• A data source is a file that contains the data that
vary in each copy of a merged document.
• For example, a data source can include the name
and address of each recipient of a form letter.
• You can use just about any type of data source
that you want, including word table, MS Outlook,
Excel worksheet, MS Access database or ASCII
text file.
Data sources (continued)
• If you have not already stored information in a
data source, MS Word guides you step by step
through setting up a word table that contains
your names, addresses and other data.
Planning a data sources
• Before you create a data source, think about
data records that include more information than
others.
• For example, some data records may have a
business name, a department title, and up to
three lines for the address.
• Other data records may have only a name, a one-
line street address and third line with the city.
Planning a data sources
(continued)
• In the data source, however each data record
must have the same number of data fields.
• Therefore, you need to design the data source so
that it has enough data fields to correspond to
the data record with the most fields.
• If a data record does not have a particular
category of information, you can leave the field
blank for that record.
Thank you…..

Proceed to
practical

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