How to do a mail Merge for Labels

Your boss has just asked you to send the same email to some customers. You then logged in to your Gmail inbox, you started typing the email address of the first customer, then the second, third, fourth … up to the last, the 52nd. What a great effort! But tell me why you have to complicate your life more than it already is ?!

Is there a convenient feature on Gmail that allows you to send emails to entire groups of people in just one click? How do you say? Did not you know? Well, if you spend a few minutes of your free time, I can better explain How to do a mail Merge for Labels using the function in question, so the next time you send the same message to multiple recipients, you will not have to manually type all their addresses, thus saving precious time.

So, do you want to delve into the subject? Fantastic! Make yourself comfortable, take all the time necessary to concentrate on reading the next paragraphs and, more importantly, implement the “tips” that I will give you. I assure you that creating a group on Gmail is anything but complicated. Good reading and good work!

How to do a mail Merge for Labels – Use mail merge to send emails in bulk

How to do a mail Merge for Labels

If you want to send an email to many recipients, personalizing it for each of them, use the mail merge. It is possible to create a batch of personalized emails, formatted identically and with the same text and the same graphic elements, in which only some sections are different and personalized. With the mail-merge, unlike what happens by sending a message to a group of people, each recipient is the only recipient of each message.

How to do a mail Merge for Labels

Creating e-mail messages using the mail merge process involves three documents:

• Main document
  It is the e-mail message, which contains text and graphic elements (such as a logo or image) that are identical for each version of the merged document.
• Distribution list
  This document contains the data used to populate information in the letter. For example, the distribution list contains names and the main document is the email that will be sent to the names in the list.
• Joint document
  The document obtained from the combination of the main document with the distribution list. The mail merge retrieves the information from the distribution list and places it in the main document, creating a custom merged document for each person on the distribution list.

How to do a mail Merge for Labels – Prepare the main document

First of all, type in the body of the e-mail message to be sent to everyone. For example, if you want to communicate an upcoming event to everyone, include the name, date, time and place of the event. The details of the event are important for everyone.

In the Start Mail Merge group on the Letters tab, select Start Mail Merge> Mail Messages.

How to do a mail Merge for Labels

How to do a mail Merge for Labels – Configure the distribution list

To send e-mail you need to install a MAPI compatible e-mail program, such as Outlook or Gmail. If you use Outlook MAPI, make sure that the versions of Word and Outlook are the same.

The distribution list represents the data source. This can be an Outlook contact directory, an Access database, or an Office address list. Contains the records used by Word to retrieve the information on which to create e-mail messages.

Tips

If you do not have a distribution list, you can create one during the mail merge. Before starting the mail merge process, collect all the data records and add them to the data source. See the topic about creating a new list in Word.

If you use an Excel spreadsheet, verify that the postcode column is formatted as text so that the zeros are not omitted. For more information, see Prepare the Excel 2016 data source for a Word mail merge

If you want to use Outlook contacts, make sure that Outlook is your default email program. For more information, see Use Outlook contacts as a data source for a mail merge

How to do a mail Merge for Labels – Link the distribution list to the email

It’s time to choose recipients from a data source (an address list). Make sure that the data source contains a column for e-mail addresses and that there is an e-mail address for each person to whom you want to send the message.

1. In the Start Mail Merge group on the Letters tab, click Select recipients and select an option.
2. Do one of the following:

• If you do not have a distribution list, choose Create a new list and create one.

        or

• If the distribution list is included in an Excel spreadsheet, an Access database, or another type of data file, choose Use an existing list. Then, go to the list and choose Open.

or

• If you use Outlook contacts, click Choose from Outlook contacts.

1. Choose File> Save As.
2. In the File name box, type a file name, and then click Save.

Change the distribution list

If the e-mail message should be sent to all the names in the distribution list, go to Step 4. Add custom content to the e-mail message. If the e-mail message should be sent only to some names in the list, you can narrow it by following the steps in the Modifying the distribution list section.

• Choose Edit Recipient List.

How to do a mail Merge for Labels

• Select the names of the people to send the e-mail to.

How to do a mail Merge for Labels

You can also sort or filter the list to find names and addresses more easily.

How to do a mail Merge for Labels – Add custom content to the e-mail message

Customize each e-mail message by adding the name and address of a person. The recommended procedure for adding these details is to insert merge fields in the main document.

• In the Insert fields group on the Letters tab, choose Address Block.

How to do a mail Merge for Labels

In the Insert Address Block dialog box, choose a format for displaying the recipient name in the e-mail message.

How to do a mail Merge for Labels

• OK to insert the merge field.
• In the Insert Fields group, choose Open Formula.

How to do a mail Merge for Labels

• In the Insert Open Formula dialog box, choose the format to use.
• OK to insert the merge field.
• Choose File> Save to save the e-mail message.

Note: After entering the fields, you will need to manually format the email.

You can also add other merge fields of the data source to the e-mail message. For more information, see Entering Mail Merge Fields.

Verify the names of the merge fields

Make sure that Word finds the names and addresses in the distribution list.

• In the Insert Fields group on the Letters tab, choose Match Fields.

Hint: Merge fields can also be opened from the Insert Address Block dialog box used to add a block of addresses to the main document.

• In the Match Correspondence dialog box, verify that the record fields that appear in the list match the column header names for the records in the distribution list data source.

How to do a mail Merge for Labels

Note: The dialog contains two columns. For example, the left-hand column is a list of common names in a commercial record. The right column is the field name for the common name, mapped to a column header in the data source file.

• Do one of the following:
• If the field names match the column headings used for the records in the distribution list data source, do nothing.

or

• If a field heading that should match a column heading in the data source appears (no match), click the drop-down arrow and choose the field name in the data source of the distribution list. Repeat as many times as necessary.
• Choose OK.

How to do a mail Merge for Labels – Format the mail merge fields

To change the type, size, or character spacing for merged content, select the merge field name and make the desired changes.

1. In the Results Preview group of the Letters tab, click Preview Results to return to the mail merge fields in the letter with the merged results.
2. Choose the name of the merge field.
3. On the Home tab, choose the font and font size to use.
4. On the Page Layout (Word 2013) or Layout (Word 2016) tab, choose paragraph spacing.

Note: Since every line in an address block is considered a paragraph in Word, you can decide to reduce the line spacing.

How to do a mail Merge for Labels – Preview and completion

After adding merge fields to the main document, you can preview the results of the merge. When you are satisfied with the preview, complete the union.

1. Click Preview Results, and then click the Next Record button Next Record button for preview results of the mail merge or previous Record Previous Record button for the results of the mail merge preview to verify that the names and addresses in the body of the letter are correct.                                                                                                                                      Tip: To go to the beginning of the list, choose the First Record button First Record button for the preview results of the mail merge. To go to the bottom of the list, choose the Last Record button Last Record button for the preview results of the mail merge.
2. Click Finalize and Merge> Send Messages.
3. In the To box, choose the column name of the email address from the list.

   Note: Word sends an individual message to each email address. You can not add Cc or Bcc recipients, nor add attachments to the email.

4.  

   In the Subject line, type the subject of the message.

5.  

   In the Mail Format box, click HTML (the default setting) or Normal Text to send the document as the body of the e-mail message.

   Important: If you send the e-mail message as plain text, the main document will not include text formatting elements or graphics.

6. In Send Records, do one of the following:

• Accept the default setting for merging and sending All records.

or

• Choose Current Record to send the message only to the record displayed on the screen.

or

• Choose the last option and in the From box, enter the number of records from which to start the merge, and in the To box, the number of records to end the merge.

         Note: No email will be sent to people whose record number is out of the From-To range.

• OK to run the mail merge.

How to do a mail Merge for Labels – Save the custom message

Save the e-mail message if you plan to use it for another mail merge.

When you save the main document, you also save the connection to the chosen data source. The next time you open the main document, Word will ask you to choose whether to keep the connection to the data source.

• If you choose Yes, the document opens showing the information merged with the first record.
• If you choose No, the connection between the main document and the data source is broken. The main document of the e-mail message becomes a standard Word document.