Okay, let's take mailings a step further by using the Start Mail Merge group on
the left-hand side.
Well a mail merge simply takes a list of names and
merges them into fields of a document.
That document could be labels, envelopes, or a form letter.
The quickest way to start is to hit the Start Mail Merge button here,
skip everything at the top, and
go straight to the helper helper at the bottom, Step-by-Step Mail Merge Wizard.
When I activate that, a panel shows up and this is literally going to take
us through step-by-step of the process, and there are six steps.
The first option is to choose which document you're going to merge into.
Mine is going to be labels.
Click Next to continue and that's right down here.
Next, it's asking do you want to change a document layout or start from existing?
I'm going to change this document layout, and
I need to click this button Label options.
Now, I happen to be using Avery 5360 label set.
You can scroll through for anything else,
you can even design your own under New Label.
I'll click OK on this one.
And it's about to wipe out the document I'm looking at.
Generally, I'll start with a blank document before I start this process, but
that's okay.
I'm okay to have it wipe this out, that's fine.
Here is my label setup.
You can see on the navigation pane, on the left-hand side,
what's going on, and I'm ready for the next step Select recipients.
In this case, I don't have an existing list.
I don't want to use Outlook contacts,
because I've been given a brand new list I need to type up.
So, I'll hit the hyperlink that says Create, and
now I'll start entering the names.
Now this is going to be a tedious process.
So I'm going to go ahead and push pause on this recording and finish this.
Notice that my screen looks a little funky,
there's a little glitch in Microsoft right now.
It's okay, they'll fix it, as soon as they realize it's there, they'll fix it.
But I know this is title, first name, last name, company, address, city,
state, zip, country, and then homework and email.
All right, I'm going to push pause and do my data entry.
Okay, when this is all done, you can see the list in here, and you can see also
that I can choose which names I want to use, which names I don't want to use.
I can sort these, filter these.
Find duplicates, find a certain recipient or validate addresses.
I'm going to go ahead and click OK, and
notice the next thing that came up were Records.
These are called fields.
These fields tell the database first record here, and
then second record, third record, and so forth.
Notice the little tiny arrows on the right-hand side.
Those double arrows have a name, they're called chevrons.
If by accident you delete one of those double arrows,
you have broken the mail merge.
It will not work.
So be very gentle when you're moving around inside these fields,
don't delete any of these.
All right, I'm going to go ahead and hit the step three Arrange labels.
Now the Arrange labels allow me to tell the database
what parts of the address to put on each record.
Well, I could get really technical, but I want to cheat and
just use the address block.
It is the easiest way.
So I'll click the address block, and notice a brand new screen shows up.
And it's asking me which parts of the address and how do you want it to look.
I'm going to get very casual here, company name, postal address, and
I'll just go ahead and click OK.
Now if you're using a set of names that don't match the fields of
the Microsoft Mail Merge, then you hit Match Fields.
And this is where you tell, okay, Microsoft Mail Merge calls it First Name,
but in my set it's called First.
Okay, so you can scroll through and you can match all of these fields.
I'm hitting OK there, hitting OK here.
And now we've got a new field called Address Block.
Well, the address block will put in the first set, but it won't put in
the second or the third until I hit the second most important button,
which is Update All Labels.
We're replicating the labels to each field.
Ready, click, there you go.
So I've told it, first name here, then the next record, address block,
then the next record, address block.
Those are the commands going on.
Again, be very gentle in here.
Don't delete these fields or the chevrons.
All right, let's preview these, how are they going to look?
Hit the Preview button and there it is.
It's showing us a preview.
This is not my printable document, I am not done with this.
But it's kind of given me a ghost image up here.
Now if I turn off the preview, there's my mail merge fields, click on the Preview.
Okay, that's how it's going to look, but I'm not done.
Over here on the right-hand side, I'm going to go to step five,
Complete the merge.
Now I'm going to have a brand new document.
When I hit complete the merge, it's asking me, okay, send it straight to the printer?
No, no, no, what if I don't even have labels on my printer yet?
Hold on.
I always hit Edit individual labels, this gives me one last chance, and
make sure all the addresses are correct.
The lineup looks good.
So now you're going to see a brand new document on my screen, and
even the title of this will change.
And here is the document, the title changed,
It's not a mail merge document, this is a finished labels document.
Now I'm safe to hit print if I want.
To finish this I'm going to minimize that document,
go back to my mail merge document.
I can save this for future use or I can delete it.
I always save my hard work, so I don't have to figure it out again next month.
That's it for this one.
Just remember the Mailings ribbon.
Start Mail Merge, Step-by-Step is your best friend and helper.