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Mail Merge to Labels

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  • Lesson resources
  • Quick reference
  • Transcript
  • Notes

About this lesson

Auto-populate a sheet of labels with text pulled from a list.

Lesson versions

Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:

2013, 2016.

Exercise files

Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ Word documents from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

Mail Merge to Labels .docx
80 KB
Mail Merge to Labels - Solution.docx
14.1 KB

Quick reference

Mail Merge to Labels

Auto-populate a sheet of labels with text pulled from a list.

When to use

Typing a page of labels can become tedious and inefficient. If you have a mailing list already established, then you can easily merge the addresses to an MS Word document of any type.

Instructions

  • Begin with a blank document
  • Click Mailings, ,
    Start mail Merge
  • Click

The Mail Merge Wizard pane appears on the right side of the screen. Notice the bottom of the pane where it identifies which step you are currently on.

  1. STEP 1: Select Document Type and choose “Labels”, then click Next at the bottom
  2. STEP 2: Select Starting Document and choose “Change document layout”, and click Label options
    1. Select the label information to match your purchased box of labels, click OK
    2. You should see a label template on your screen, then click Next at the bottom
  3. STEP 3: Select Recipients asks you where your list is. Choose one option: Use existing, Select from Outlook, Type a new list
    1. If you Type a new list, click Create , enter the data and click OK.
    2. You will be prompted to SAVE the file. Make sure to write down the file location because you will need that info if you re-use the same list again.
    3. Click Next at the bottom

After the list is saved, your template contains FIELDS that look like:

It is VITAL that you do not erase or delete the chevron marks on the field. They are “codes”.

  1.  STEP 4: Arrange your labels; make sure to click into the top left label box or “cell”.
    On the Mail Merge pane, click Address block ; make your choices in the dialogue box and click OK
    1. Notice the new field that appeared only in the first label cell:
    2. To populate all the cells with an Address Block, you MUST CLICK
    3. Notice all the labels cells now show:
  2. STEP 5: Preview your labels; If you don’t like the line spacing or fonts, now is the time to change them.
    1. Select all (Ctrl + A), click the HOME ribbon, Paragraph group, Line Spacing button, and choose:
  3. STEP 6: Complete the merge allows you to either Print or Edit the individual labels.
         It is recommended to Edit the labels because that is one last chance to preview and/or change individual labels.
  • 00:04 On the Mailings ribbon, we have an action called Start Mail Merge.
  • 00:09 Typing page labels is tedious and inefficient, but
  • 00:13 if you have a mailing list already established, then you can easily merge
  • 00:16 those addresses onto a Word document or mailing list or envelopes.
  • 00:22 So I have an envelope example, a letter example and labels example.
  • 00:26 And what we're going to do is actually use these little addresses right here
  • 00:29 as an example but if you want to just look at the video and
  • 00:32 do your own mail merge that's fine.
  • 00:33 But there's a couple things you need to know.
  • 00:36 First of all, generally we're going to start with a brand new blank document, and
  • 00:40 then when we click on mailings we click this start mail merge.
  • 00:44 You can choose any of these options, but
  • 00:46 I highly recommend just going to the bottom one, which is step by step
  • 00:49 mail merge wizard, because it's going to just walk you through this process.
  • 00:53 There are six steps, notice over on the right hand side, letters,
  • 00:58 emails, envelopes, labels, directory.
  • 01:00 And then way at the bottom, it says I'm currently on step 1 of 6.
  • 01:04 I wish this was at the top of the list, I'd probably see it easier.
  • 01:07 But after we've identified that yes, we're going to do a labels mailing,
  • 01:12 you just go ahead and hit next start the document.
  • 01:14 Okay so I'm gonna go ahead and click next, and up comes the list of options.
  • 01:19 So basically all you have to do is pay attention to this task bar,
  • 01:22 and it's going to walk you through everything.
  • 01:24 So do you want to set up your mailing labels?
  • 01:27 I can change a document layout, or start from an existing one.
  • 01:30 Yeah, I'm gonna change my document layout.
  • 01:32 So that means I have to go to the next step and
  • 01:33 I have to choose which labels I'm gonna use.
  • 01:35 Well, I've already looked at the box of labels and I know they're 5261s Avery.
  • 01:41 So, I'll go ahead and hit OK to that.
  • 01:43 And then, now you're going to see a brand new document on my screen, okay.
  • 01:48 It just wiped out my previous document and here I have this one.
  • 01:52 And so over here on the panel again says step two, two of six.
  • 01:57 Select my recipients, all right, so I'm gonna go ahead and
  • 02:00 select my recipients, and read the list.
  • 02:03 Use and existing list, select from Outlook context,
  • 02:06 all Microsoft products actually talk to each other quite nicely.
  • 02:09 So, if you're using Outlook you could actually dip in there and
  • 02:11 get a list of recipients or type in the list.
  • 02:14 On this occasion, I'm going to absolutely type a brand new list.
  • 02:17 And so, if you read down, it says create.
  • 02:20 All right, so I'm going to create a brand new list.
  • 02:22 This is called a database form.
  • 02:24 Okay, so in here I'm literally going to click and
  • 02:28 I'm going to tab over and I'm going to type my A and the last name was Anderson.
  • 02:33 I'm not gonna make you suffer through watching me do this.
  • 02:35 I'm gonna the pause the video and finish this.
  • 02:37 But I just want you to know, after you type one in, you hit new entry and
  • 02:41 it goes to the next one.
  • 02:42 I'm gonna pause, I'm gonna type this, I'll be right back.
  • 02:48 Okay, all my address are types, I'm gonna ahead and hit OK.
  • 02:51 And it asks me to name them, so
  • 02:55 I'm gonna name them my mail merge address list, and I'm gonna hit save.
  • 02:59 And you would determine where it's going to be saved on your system.
  • 03:04 And now here we have the end result is kind of showing me my existing list,
  • 03:09 now this isn't the mail merge, okay?
  • 03:11 This is just my database that Microsoft Word is pointing to, that's all this is.
  • 03:15 And I've named it mail merge address list, mdb stands for Microsoft database.
  • 03:19 That's what that little code stands for.
  • 03:22 Now I can sort these, filter these, I can un-check the ones I don't wanna use,
  • 03:25 it's all very nice.
  • 03:26 But at this point I'm going to hit OK.
  • 03:28 It's all is well right there, hit OK.
  • 03:31 We pay attention over on the right hand side to the list.
  • 03:35 I've already created a list and now it says an existing list because
  • 03:40 that's what happened on the last step and if I want I can select a different list or
  • 03:45 edit that list but I want to arrange my labels.
  • 03:48 Now look what happened on my screen.
  • 03:50 I have a bunch of little codes that says next record.
  • 03:52 I wanna point something out to you.
  • 03:54 On this codes is a little arrows on the left and
  • 03:57 on the right, those are called chevrons.
  • 04:00 Chevron is a code that is used in Microsoft Word mail merges to identify
  • 04:05 everything inside of there is a field, now if I were to accidentally click and
  • 04:10 erase some of those chevrons I would break the mail merge.
  • 04:12 So please be very careful with those codes.
  • 04:15 So leave them alone.
  • 04:15 All right, I'm gonna go ahead and arrange my labels, so I'm gonna go ahead and click
  • 04:19 on that one and read the list on the right address block, greeting line, electronic.
  • 04:25 I'm just going to use address block.
  • 04:26 These are just labels.
  • 04:27 Nothing formal has to happen here.
  • 04:29 So I click address block, and it's asking me is this one okay.
  • 04:32 How do you want?
  • 04:33 Everything's fine.
  • 04:34 I'll hit okay and there's my address box.
  • 04:37 But notice, it's only in this first cell, it's not in the rest of them.
  • 04:41 It's very important right here that we actually update.
  • 04:45 We have to have update the labels.
  • 04:47 Without this button, you only get one label.
  • 04:50 With this button you get all the labels, okay, so update.
  • 04:53 And now, put all the address block codes right next to the next record codes.
  • 04:57 Makes perfect sense to me, cuz I've done this 100 times.
  • 05:00 For you, it might be a little confusing, but don't worry about it.
  • 05:03 Simply pay attention to the right hand side,
  • 05:06 I I guess update labels was there as well.
  • 05:07 Now I'm gonna preview, preview your labels.
  • 05:10 Now previewing the labels doesn't mean I'm ready to print.
  • 05:13 It's just giving me a preview.
  • 05:14 Notice my preview button came on right up here.
  • 05:17 Don't like the layout obviously they don't fit.
  • 05:20 So I'm gonna click in here and I'm gonna press Control H is select all, and
  • 05:24 I'm gonna come over here to my home ribbon.
  • 05:26 Yes, it's okay to leave your mailings ribbon to go make some changes to
  • 05:30 your layout on the paragraph icon and remove space.
  • 05:34 Okay, so now it looks like they're going to fit.
  • 05:36 I simply go right back to my mailings ribbon, leave off.
  • 05:40 It's right where it left me off.
  • 05:42 So scroll down, my next step, complete the mail merge.
  • 05:45 Okay, just cuz I'm seeing it doesn't mean I'm ready to print.
  • 05:48 Complete the mail merge, hit print, or I can edit individual labels.
  • 05:52 I prefer to edit,
  • 05:53 because that gives me one last chance to change something if something went wrong.
  • 05:58 So I'm going to edit, then I click OK, and there we have it.
  • 06:01 Of course, I've got a little glitch in my system, so here we go.
  • 06:05 Now I can just print off that screen, and I'm done with my labels.
  • 06:10 All right, I hope that helps you.
  • 06:12 All right, thank you.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Envelopes and Labels
3m:49s
Mail Merge to Envelopes
5m:48s
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