Mailing Labels and Form Letters

Making Mailing Labels or Form Letters using MS Word with Excel 2007
There are two parts to a mass mailing. The list or database with contact information and the letter or address labels you wish to send out. Using the Mail Merge feature of MS Word you can create pages of mailing labels or letters addressed to each individual listed in an Excel spreadsheet.

The list
If you don’t already have a list created to pull the names and addresses from you will need to create one. Click the link for instructions How to build a list in Excel 2007.

Importing a list to Word
Once you have your list of addresses ready you can start the process of transferring the information to Microsoft Word to make labels.
In Microsoft Word click on the Mailings tab to bring up the Mailings ribbon.

Click the Start Mail Merge button and from the drop down list click Labels… to make a page of mailing labels. The Letters option is also available to you at this point if you are planning on having a form letter with a personalized salutation.

For mailing labels; From the Label Options window choose the Label vendor and product number of the labels you will be using. The label number will appear on the outside of the box of labels you purchase from the store. After your selection click OK.

You are now ready to get the information from the database with the contact information. Click the Select Recipients button and pick Use Existing List from the drop down menu.

You will be prompted to select the source of your database. You will need change the Look in: field to the folder where your list is stored and then select your list and choose Open.

Once you have selected your Excel list you will be prompted to select the table. The table is the specific sheet that holds your information. (Most likely your table will be on sheet one if you didn’t specify a specific page.

Note: The box First row of data contains column headers should be check for properly built lists.

Choose the import fields

Now Microsoft Word knows WHERE to find the information. Next you need to tell word WHAT information to put on our labels. Click on the Insert Merge Field button.

Word will bring up an Insert Merge Field window. This will have a list of all the fields you have entered into your database. We are going to use First Name, Last Name, Address, City, State, and Zip. If your database has extra fields like phone number, or email address we will not select those for the mailing label. To add a field to a label double click on the field name or click on the field name and then press the Insert button. After all the required fields have been selected you can close the window by pressing the Close button.

Format Fields

Your field names now appear in your Word document; however the fields are not formatted. You need to format the fields. Put a space between the First and Last name, enter after the last name to have the address appear on the second line… etc. Once the first label is formatted correctly you can then press the Update Labels button to apply the formatting to all subsequent labels.

To preview your newly created labels click the Preview Results button.

Merge to new document

You can now print or merge your new labels to a new document by pressing the Finish & Merge button. Merging your document will allow you to save and access your labels at a later date without having to access your Excel list again.

For general questions concerning the use of campus software or to set up individual training sessions, you may call Mark Holm at x4158.
You can also stop by to see Mark in the Manspeaker Building room 2313.

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