Mail-Merge Dr. John Wm (Jay) Sanders Middle Tennessee State University Using Word & Excel 2007 to create for individualized Letters to Parents Click to advance
Merging Parent-letter in Word with Student-database in Excel This is a 3 Step Process: 1.Creating a Student-Database in Excel 2.Writing Letter in Word, Merging with Excel file, & Inserting the Mergefields 3.Merging the letters to create multiple personalized letters to your student’s parents Click to advance
Step 2: Getting Started in WORD Click: the [Mailings] Ribbon The [Mailings] Ribbon appears The [Mailings] Ribbon appears: Click: [ Start Mail Merge] Icon Click to advance Continued on next slide
Step 1 Click: [Letters] Next: Revising document & insert “mergefields Next: Revising document & insert “mergefields” Either type your own letter creating a school letterhead Either type your own letter creating a school letterhead. Or Download the example by clicking [main.doc] > [main.doc] Click to advance
Revising the Letter & Preparing to Insert “Mergefields” 1 st : Note that the “mergefields are hi-lighted in gray 2nd: Click on border of box & press [delete] 3rd: Click each “mergefield” & press [delete] (You will be inserting your own after you attach your Excel “grades.xls” to this document) 4th: Your letter will look like this & you are ready to attach the “grades.xls” file Note “formatting has been turned on. Click to advance
Attaching “grades.xls” & inserting “mergefields” Click: [Select Recipients] icon Click: Use Existing List] When “Select Data Source” box appears find/click your ‘grades.xls’ file & click [Open] Now you are to insert “mergefields” Click to advance When “Select Table” box appears click [OK]
Finally…..Inserting “mergefields” Click: [Insert Merge Field] 1. Click in the 4 th paragraph below date 2. Click [parent-first] on the box 3. Click [Insert] 4. Click [Close] Click to advance
Inserting “mergefields” continued… 1.While still in the 4 th paragraph press [Space Bar], then Click: [Insert Merge Field] 2. Click [parent-last] on the box 3. Click [Insert] 4. Click [Close] Repeat this with each [Merge Field] Repeat this with each [Merge Field] 5. Repeat this with each [Merge Field] 6. Change name, address, phone #, etc. to personalize the letter. 7. Save file as [main.doc] Click to advance
Before you Merge Before you merge your letter it should look similar to the example, except it will have your name & info. Note, you can not type in the “merge fields”…they must be inserted from your Excel “grades.xls” attached file. Remember to save your file as “main.doc” Click to advance
Step 3…Merge! Click: [Finish & Merge] [Edit Individual Documents] [All] to merge all records [OK] to merge all records Click to advance Know you have 10 individualized letters to the parent of your students.
After the Merge Check each letter & see if it has the correct information & revise as needed Check each letter & see if it has the correct information & revise as needed. After all the letters are corrected, if needed, then …… Save the file as “merged-letters.doc” Post both “main.doc” & “merged-letters.doc” on your website. This is the last slide. These are 2 letters out of 10