Chapter 17: Mail Merge

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Microsoft has done it again. They made a fairly nice tool, and then botched it up in the most recent version-Word 2002/XP.

The Mail Merge wizard was fairly easy to use. Now, with task panes, many of us just cannot figure out how to use it properly.

Main Documents

Mail merges are used when the same printed matter or email needs to be sent to multiple people. When you receive those prizewinning envelopes in the mail and wonder how it was typed 'just for you,' they have surely used a mail merge feature from some piece of software.

When you need to create labels for your holiday card list or a letter to let all your clients know that you're moving, mail merge is just the ticket.

Mail merges can also be used for other purposes. Suppose you keep track of all the personal computers at your company and you need to put a label on each one containing its specifications. You can create a data file containing that information (perhaps you already have a data file) and then create a mail merge that places the information in a standard format on a large label to place on each machine.

Using mail merge, you can easily create any number of products:

• Letters

• Mailing labels

• File folder labels

• Name tags

• Place setting tags

• Product tags

There are three documents for a mail merge: the final product or merged document that is created; the main document, or 'boilerplate,' from which the mail merge is performed; and the data source that is merged into the main document.

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