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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, 2019/365.

Exercise files

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

Mail Merge to Labels
124.9 KB Mail Merge to Labels - Solution
12.3 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 Step-by Step Mail Merge Wizard.

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.

 

 

Step 1: Select Document Type and choose Labels, then click Next at the bottom.

Step 2: Select Starting Document and choose Change document layout, and click Label options.

  • Select the label information to match your purchased box of labels, click OK.
  • You should see a label template on your screen, then click Next at the bottom.

Step 3: Select Recipients asks you where your list is. Choose one option: Use existing, Select from Outlook, Type a new list.

  • If you Type a new list, click Create, enter the data and click OK.

  • 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.
  • 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.

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.

  • Notice the new field that appeared only in the first label cell:

  • To populate all the cells with an Address Block, you must click Update all labels.
  • Notice all the labels cells now show:

Step 5: Preview your labels; If you don’t like the line spacing or fonts, now is the time to change them.

  • Select all (Ctrl + A), click the HOME ribbon, Paragraph group, Line Spacing button, and choose Remove Space Before Paragraph.

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.

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  • 00:04 Hi, in this lesson I'm gonna introduce you to a Mail Merge.
  • 00:07 Now, a Mail Merge simply means taking a list of names and addresses and
  • 00:11 merging them onto maybe an envelope, maybe a document, maybe a list of labels.
  • 00:16 But it means you have multiple names and
  • 00:18 you don't wanna have to type each one individually.
  • 00:21 That's where the Mail Merge comes in.
  • 00:23 Merges a list into a document.
  • 00:25 If you click the Start Mail Merge button, I'm on the Mailings ribbon,
  • 00:29 Start Mail Merge, we have Letters, E-mails, Envelopes, Labels, Directory.
  • 00:32 But honestly I would start right over here where it says Step by
  • 00:36 Step Mail Merge Wizard.
  • 00:37 Go ahead and click that button and up pops your friend the task pane.
  • 00:41 Now, the task pane looks a little small here, so
  • 00:44 what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna double-click my Mailings ribbon to
  • 00:48 collapse that ribbon 'cause that will extend my task pane.
  • 00:51 Because some of these commands down at the bottom will hide if it doesn't have enough
  • 00:55 room, and I just wanna be able to see them during this.
  • 00:58 All right, in this case I'm starting on step number one, and
  • 01:02 wants me to pick my document I'm gonna choose labels.
  • 01:05 And it talks to me about the labels, and now I'm gonna go to starting document.
  • 01:09 Then just read through these, how do you want to set up your mailing labels?
  • 01:14 By using the current document?
  • 01:16 No, change document layout?
  • 01:17 Start from existing document?
  • 01:21 Actually, I want to change a document layout and I wanna go to label options.
  • 01:26 So, when I click label options, it wants to know what label style I'm using.
  • 01:31 In this case, I do have 5360s, so I just type that in,
  • 01:36 it finds that label style for Avery, and I can confirm the size and width.
  • 01:41 I'll go ahead and hit, OK.
  • 01:43 Yes, go and hit OK, and, here we have it,
  • 01:46 this is our template, for the labels that I'm going to be printing.
  • 01:50 All right, now leading over here next is select recipients.
  • 01:55 I'll go ahead and click this, by using an existing list that I've already
  • 01:59 pre-typed, by selecting from Outlook contacts.
  • 02:02 No, I'm gonna type a brand new list, and right here I'm gonna create this list, and
  • 02:07 then after I create it course that will be existing.
  • 02:10 I'll go ahead and hit Create, now, this is called a database form,
  • 02:13 once we do absolutely enter all the names that are going to be on my list.
  • 02:17 Now, this is going to be a little tedious.
  • 02:20 So what I'm gonna do is pause the video and
  • 02:22 when I come back you'll see my form already entered.
  • 02:27 As you can see my data has been entered.
  • 02:29 I'm gonna go ahead and click OK and it wants me to save it.
  • 02:36 So I type a name, save it accordingly and there we have it.
  • 02:39 My Mail Merge address list.
  • 02:41 At this point I can uncheck ones I don't want to send it to.
  • 02:45 I can sort, filter, remove duplicates, find a certain person.
  • 02:49 Of course, I only have three on my screen so it's pretty self explanatory.
  • 02:52 Sometimes you'll have hundreds here and you'll want to run through it.
  • 02:55 Whatever is left with check marks is who you will be mail merging to.
  • 02:59 Notice right down here says Mail Merge Address List.mdb,
  • 03:04 that means mail merge database, okay?
  • 03:07 Microsoft database, all right, hit OK on this, and
  • 03:10 here is the template, the Microsoft labels template.
  • 03:14 Notice it says next record with these little arrows off to the right and left,
  • 03:18 those are called Chevrons, those are field codes.
  • 03:21 If you should select any of those field codes and get rid of them,
  • 03:25 you break the field and it will not send.
  • 03:28 So you never,
  • 03:28 never want to get rid of any of those chevrons at the end of that field, okay?
  • 03:33 And you see just like that I just deleted one of my chevrons,
  • 03:35 I've just broken my Mail Merge.
  • 03:37 So I'll Ctrl+Z to put that back, just be very gentle when you're in this area.
  • 03:41 So now I've switched over on the right hand side to use an existing list because
  • 03:46 I just created one.
  • 03:47 I'm not gonna select a different one, I'm not gonna edit it, I already looked at it.
  • 03:51 I'm gonna go here to arrange my labels.
  • 03:53 So as you can see, just follow the pattern, go to the next step.
  • 03:57 Okay, at this point, do I wanna use an address block, a greeting line?
  • 04:01 No, it's not a letter.
  • 04:02 Electronic postage, no.
  • 04:04 Any more items?
  • 04:05 Absolutely, I'm gonna use the address blocks.
  • 04:07 I'm gonna click into this first label field, hit Address Blocks.
  • 04:13 This comes up and asks me how I want it all, Mr.
  • 04:17 or Mrs., I don't want any of that.
  • 04:20 Insert company name, yes.
  • 04:21 So it's showing me an example right here of how it's going to look.
  • 04:25 And that is fine, I'm going to hit OK.
  • 04:28 And now notice I have AddressBlock, then Next Record, Next Record, Next Record.
  • 04:31 Here is a very important part of this step.
  • 04:35 Right down here, oops, I think it went too far.
  • 04:38 All right, down here it says update all labels.
  • 04:42 If you don't hit the update all labels,
  • 04:44 you get one label on this entire sheet labels and that's it.
  • 04:47 You must hit this the replicated labels, MUST HIT UPDATE LABELS, click.
  • 04:52 Here we go, and now every label has next record, address block,
  • 04:55 go to the next record, address block, this is great.
  • 04:57 Now, I'm going to hit Next again and preview my labels.
  • 05:01 Well, that looks fine to me.
  • 05:02 I think that looks perfect.
  • 05:04 I have the option, I can save this right now,
  • 05:07 which I would do, or I can print this right now.
  • 05:11 Next, it says, right at the bottom, complete the merge.
  • 05:13 Click, and here we have print or edit individual.
  • 05:18 I would never, send a sheet of labels to the printer without first previewing it,
  • 05:23 too many things can go wrong.
  • 05:25 So I absolutely hit edit individual labels, and
  • 05:29 all of them and now I have my true document, okay?
  • 05:34 The one up here, the previous one was my records,
  • 05:37 just kinda the template but this is my brand new document.
  • 05:41 Now, if I wanna adjust how those look cause they look terrible,
  • 05:44 I'm gonna select all, with Ctrl+A, select all.
  • 05:47 Go to my Home ribbon, fix my paragraph alignment by removing the space.
  • 05:51 I can tell you it's too close to that margin.
  • 05:53 So I'm gonna push this over about a quarter of an inch using that index
  • 05:58 selector on my ruler and that look pretty good, I'm okay to hit Print.
  • 06:02 This is quite a process, don't be afraid of it,
  • 06:05 go through this video a couple of times.
  • 06:07 This is such a valuable tool that it has been forgotten but I still use it all
  • 06:12 the time, so I just want to tell you it's not as hard as it looks.
  • 06:16 You just need practice at a few time, all right?
  • 06:19 Thank you.

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