Chapter 6

Generating Form Letters, Mailing Labels, and a

Directory

MicrosoftWord 2013

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• Explain the merge process• Use the Mail Merge task pane and the MAILINGS

tab on the ribbon• Use a letter template as the main document for a

mail merge• Create and edit a data source• Insert merge fields in a main document• Use an IF field in a main document

Objectives

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• Merge form letters• Select records to merge• Sort data records• Address and print mailing labels and envelopes• Change page orientation• Merge all data records to a directory• Convert text to a table

Objectives

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Project – Form Letters, Mailing Labels, and a Directory

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• People are more likely to open and read a personalized letter than a letter addressed as Dear Sir, Dear Madam, or To Whom It May Concern

• Types of form letter correspondence include announcements of sales to customers, notices of benefits to employees, invitations to the public to participate in a sweepstakes giveaway, and job application letters to potential employees

Form Letters

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• To generate form letters you create a main document for the form letter, create or specify a data source, and then merge, the main document with the data source to generate a series of individual letters

• Merging is the process of combining the contents of a data source with a main document

Generating Form Letters

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• The Mail Merge task pane displays a wizard, which is a step-by-step progression that guides you through the merging process

• The first step in the mail merge process is to identify the type of document you are creating for the main document. Typical installations of Word support five types of main documents: letters, email messages, envelopes, labels, and a directory

Mail Merge Process

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• When creating form letters, you either can type the letter for the main document from scratch in a blank document window or use a letter template

Identifying the Main Document for the Form Letter Using the Mail Merge Task Pane

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• The main document is the portion of a form letter that is repeated from one merged letter to the next

• It contains the constant text, punctuation, spaces, and graphics to the data in the data source

• A main document is opened the same way that you open any other Word document

The Main Document

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• A content control contains instructions for filling in areas of a document

Content Control

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• The data source is a file that contains the variable, or changing, values from one merged document to the next

• Word stores a data source as an Access table• Each row is called a record • The first row of a data source is called the header

record because it identifies the name of each column

Creating a New Data Source

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• Each row below the header row is called a data record

• Data records contain the text that varies in each occurrence of the merged document

• Each column in the data source is called a data field

• A data field represents a group of similar data• Each data field must be identified uniquely with a

name, called a field name

Creating a New Data Source

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• The first step in creating a data source is to decide which fields it will contain

Creating a New Data Source

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• By default, Word saves a data source in the My Data Sources folder

Saving a Data Source when Prompted by Word

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• In the main document, field names linked to the data source are called merge fields because they merge, or combine, the main document with the contents of the data source

• When a merge field is inserted in the main document, Word surrounds the field name with merge field characters, which are called chevrons («»), that mark the beginning and ending of a merge field

Inserting Merge Fields

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Inserting a Merge Field in the Main Document

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• Merge field characters are not on the keyboard; therefore, you cannot type them directly in the document

• Word automatically displays them when a merge field is inserted in the main document

Merge Field Characters

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• The AddressBlock merge field contains several fields related to an address: Title, First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Suffix, Company, Street Address 1, Street Address 2, City, State, and ZIP Code

Inserting the AddressBlock Merge Field

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• The GreetingLine merge field contains text and fields related to a salutation

Inserting the Greeting Line Merge Field

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• You can insert Word fields that are designed specifically for a mail merge such as an IF field

• If a condition is true, then an action is performed; else a different action is performed

• When the text in the “Otherwise insert this text” is used this indicates that the condition was false

Inserting an IF Field in the Main Document

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Inserting an IF Field in the Main Document

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• The instructions in the IF field are not displayed in the document; instead, the field results are displayed for the current record

• The instruction of an IF field are called field codes, and the default for Word is for field codes not to be displayed

• Thus, field codes do not print or show on the screen unless you turn them on

Inserting an IF Field in the Main Document

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Displaying a Field Code

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• You might want to turn on a field code to verify its accuracy or to modify it

• Field codes tend to clutter the screen, thus, most Word users turn them off after viewing them

• If a field code is turned on, it does not impact the merge process

Field Codes

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• You have the option of merging all data in a data source or merging just a portion of it

• You can also decide which records that you want to merge based on a condition that you specify

Merging the Data Source

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Previewing the Merged Letters

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• One way to print the contents of the data source is to merge all data records in the data source into a single document, called a directory

• A directory is a listing from the contents of the data source

Merging to a Directory

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• When a document is in portrait orientation, the short edge of the paper is the top of the document

• In landscape orientation the long edge of the paper is the top of the document

Changing Page Orientation