The mail merge process is one of the more complicated word processing tasks you will have to perform, even though the process is easy to describe:

Take one form and one data source and make as many new documents as there are records in the data source by combining the two. It is almost the computer equivalent of shuffling cards.

Here are a few words and terms that I will use in this description:

• When I refer to a form, I refer to the document into which the data is merged.

• When I refer to a letter, I mean the document produced when the data fills the form. Each letter is made up of one form and one record. The same form is used for every letter. A new record is used for every letter.

• A record is a related group of data. For example, if you are making form letters, a record is the data about about the addressee of the letter: name, address, etc. For the rest of this description, I will use a record made up of a group of fields which describe one person and address. Records can hold many other kinds of data as well as names and addresses.

• A record is made up of one or more fields. A field is a section of a record which is composed of two parts: the actual data and a delimiter. The data in a field describes a particular kind of information, such as a first name or a social security number.

• A delimiter is one or more characters which separate one field from another. A common format is called the comma-delimited string format. Each record is a string (a group of letters and numbers meant to be seen as a unit) with fields. Each field in a record is separated from other fields in the record by the same kind of delimiter. In other words, if the first field is separated from the second field by a comma, the second field will be separated from the third field by a comma, etc. It is important to notice that all records in a data source have (or should have) the exact same number and arrangement of fields. Each record in a data source will use the same delimiters.

• The data source is the file which holds the records which you want to merge into a form. Common types of data source are word processor documents, databases, and spreadsheets. Sometimes you must convert a file into another kind of file which your word processor (like WORD) can use.

WORD can't use comma-delimited strings directly. They need to be converted into a form that WORD can use. A simple way of doing this is to use EXCEL which can use files of comma-delimited strings. Simply open the file in EXCEL and answer a few questions about how the file is formatted. Once the file is opened in EXCEL, it can be saved as an EXCEL worksheet. WORD can use EXCEL worksheets as data sources.

To start the mail merge process in WORD, go to the TOOLS menu and select MAIL MERGE. There are, essentially, three steps:

1. You must either create a form (WORD calls this the MAIN DOCUMENT) or tell WORD that you want to use a document which already exists as the form. You can edit the form just like any other document.

2. You must either create a data source or tell WORD to use a data source that already exists. WORD provides a mechanism which allows you to create a database in WORD. A WORD database should not be very large. WORD is not a database manager. A large (several hundred records) database should be created in or managed by a database program or spreadsheet, preferrably a database manager.

3. You tell WORD to merge the data into the form. The output of the process can be files, printed pages, emails, etc. You can also use a variant of this process to merge data into envelopes or labels.

The graphic above shows how a record merges into a form. Notice that one field (the first name field) is used in two places.

When you have a data source, the data may be organized into tables. EXCEL always shows at least one table so you must select it. It will look something like this:

You will then see a list box with all of the records in the table you have selected. It will look something like this:

You do not have to use every field or every record in the data source in a letter. WORD allows you to select records and fields.

After you make your selection, you merge the data.

Mail Merge Project requirements