With other formats, you may encounter difficulty. In some cases, Word has no problems, such as with this CSV file. When you use some of these other formats, you may have to define encodings, data fields, or field delimiters. The advantage of using Microsoft Excel is that it’s easy for Word to parse the data, especially if you include column headers. Excel files (*.xlsx, *xlsm, *.xlsb, *.xls).Microsoft Office List shortcuts (*.ols).For example, the mail merge wizard accepts different file types: However, you don’t have to use an Excel file. Typically, if people have Microsoft Word, they also have Excel. In this tutorial, I’ve used Microsoft Excel as my data source. This makes it easier to match and merge fields. For example, I can attest to knowing female “Michael”s and male “Merideth”s.īefore saving your Excel file, make sure you have a header row with descriptive column names. For example, your data source may have a formal name such as “Robert,” but you know the person as “Rob.” Salutations can also be an issue if you’re not familiar with first names. You may need to worry about the First name field if you want to convey that you know someone. You don’t need to worry about deleting columns you won’t use in the letter. The top item can be fixed using the Excel Proper function. Missing apostrophes in last names (Oneill).This is especially true if you didn’t input the data. I don’t think I’ve seen a data source file that didn’t need correction. Review & Fix Data Recordsīefore creating your letter, you should check your data source file. For example, you might add a field called “Event.” This could show an event time to meet the candidate. You may add other fields to meet your needs. XLSX data extract with voter information from their election office. Using politicians as our example, they can get a. This requires knowing the content of your letter and your recipients. The first step is to decide what to personalize. The mail merge process uses your letter template + data source file = individual Word Letters. Your final Word letter file with the personalized letters.A data source file with a row of information for each recipient.You might think of this as your letter template. Mail merge letter with codes for the personalized fields.It helps me to think of the mail merge process in terms of three files. Likewise, you can use a similar process to make custom address labels. And, you can use the same merge steps to create printable gift certificates. For example, you could combine elements from a contact list with a letter template to make personalized letters. If you’re not familiar with the term “mail merge,” it refers to a way of combining data from one or more sources to create new items.