Section 12.4. Editing Your Recipient List

12.4. Editing Your Recipient List

One of the keys to running a successful merge is getting your recipient list in shape for the merge. If anything fouls up a mail merge, it's usually because the recipient list is missing some details. Time spent massaging your list is time well spent, because you can then use the list for one successful mail merge after another.

Figure 12-11. Top: This warning lets you know that a program other than Outlook is trying to access email addresses. If see this message when you're running an email merge, you can safely click Allow. Use the drop-down menu to set a time limit so that other programs (read: viruses) can't send email after the merge is done. If you're not aware of a legitimate reason for a program to be looking up email addresses, click Deny.
Bottom: A second warning box appears if a program other than Outlook is trying to send an email message.

12.4.1. Editing Your Recipient Lists

If you use the same list frequently, sooner or later you'll want to add a new person to the list or update the address of someone who's moved. Editing a list saved from an earlier merge is simple:

1. Choose Mailings Start Mail Merge Select Recipients Use Existing List .

   The Select Data Source box opens, showing the contents of your My Data Sources folder. (By the way, it's a good idea to store your recipient lists in this folder, where Word and other Office programs have easy access to them.)

2. In the Select Data Source box, double-click your recipient list to open the file .

   At first it may seem like nothing happened , but behind the scenes Word opened your recipient list in preparation for using it in a mail merge. Just look at the ribbon: In the Start Mail Merge group , the Edit Recipient List button, which was grayed out until this point, is available.

3. Click Edit Recipient List, or press Alt+M, D .

   The Mail Merge Recipients box opens (Figure 12-12). It may look like a box where you can edit your list, but it's not. It's for selecting recipients during a merge (by turning on the checkmarks next to the names ).

   

   Figure 12-12. In the Mail Merge Recipients box, you choose those lucky souls who get your letter. This box also leads to some other merge management tools. For example, you can select a Data Source and edit the entries. Before you do a merge, you can sort the list or filter it, to select specific recipients.

   
   

4. In the lower-left corner, in the Data Source box, click to select the filename of your recipient list, and then click Edit .

   The Edit Data Source box should look familiar from Figure 12-2. It gives you all the tools that you used to create the list. You can edit the text in any of the fields. Use the New Entry button to add names to your list. To delete a name , click anywhere in the row, and then click Delete Entry at lower-left.

5. When you're finished, click OK to close the Edit Data Source box, and then click OK to close the Mail Merge Recipients box .