Creating a Mail Merge with Word and Excel

Creating letters, faxes, and e-mail messages with imported data from a Microsoft® Excel spreadsheet is a simple and useful way to automate different types of form communication. Simply follow the steps outlined below to create your own mail merge.

1. Open Word and click on Tools, then move your mouse over Letters and Mailings, and click Mail Merge. This will bring up the Mail Merge Wizard.

2. Select your document type. For this tutorial, simply keep the default, Letters. Click Next.
3. Select your starting document. The default selection is Use the current document. Click Next.
4. Select your recipients: keep the default, Use an existing list. Browse to locate the file. Remember, in the Select Data Source dialog box, if you are looking for an Excel file it is easiest to first change the Files of Type to Excel (.xls). Once the file has been located, double-click on the file name. If a Select Table dialog box appears, keep the default setting (Sheet1$) and click OK. Verify that all of the desired recipients have a check-mark on the left and click OK.
5. Write your letter: follow the instructions on the screen. Remember that when writing the letter, use the links to insert data from the recipient list chosen in the previous step.
6. Preview your letters and make changes if necessary.
7. Complete the merge: in the Merge to New Document dialog box, choose which records will be merged.

That's it; you have completed a Mail merge between Word and Excel!

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