Using an existing address list:

It does not matter whether we use a address list created in Excel, Access, or Word.
First open the letter that is to be linked to the address list, click the “Select Recipients” (1) button in the ribbon, and select “Use Existing List …” (2) from the drop-down menu.
This opens the “Select Data Source” (3) dialog box.
Select the file containing the list of addresses, which is an Excel File (4) in this example, and click the “Open” button (5).

This opens a new dialog box:
The Excel file that I have selected has only one worksheet, so this worksheet is selected (1).
If your file has multiple worksheets, then select the worksheet in which the address resides.

Because the first row from this directory is a column title, I select this check box (2).

Then click the OK button.

It seems as if that nothing has happened, but Word has now created the link between our letter and the addresses that were in our Excel file.

Fields:

When we consider an existing list, we first compare the field names because, we obviously want everything done correctly.
Click on the “Match Fields” (1) button, in the ribbon under the “Mailings” (2) tab.
This opens the “Match Fields” (3) dialog box.

On the left of this dialog box, we find the standard field names, and on the right we find the field names from our selected file. In this case, it is the Excel file.

Some of these fields have a contact, whereas others do not.
This is simple, if the default title in the left column corresponds to the title in the linked file, they are a match. If this is not the case, click the downward pointing arrow next to the box for which no match could be found, and select the field name from the list, manually.

The default field, “Name” is the same for both these columns, so this is not a problem.

The standard field, “Last Name” has no match in my Excel file, so I have to enter it, manually.
Click the arrow pointing downwards next to this box, and select “First Name” from the list.

Do the same thing for all other fields that are to be merged, and for fields for which no matches were found in your Word file.
If you want to use these agreements again in another combination, select the “Remember this matching…” check box.
Click OK, when you’re done.

Remark!

If you are you not sure that Word can find a comparison between the standard fields and the source fields, enter a match. This might take a little more time but, it prevents having empty fields in your document.

Editing the Recipient List

Whether we have created a list or are use an existing list, we can edit it.
Click the “Edit Recipient List” button on the ribbon, under the “Mailing Lists” tab.
This opens another dialog box where we can exclude recipients by clicking on those particular names, so that this is unchecked.

We can sort the recipients based on one or more fields.
We can also filter recipients based on one or more fields.
If we have a list size, we can find duplicates, and delete them.
We can also find recipients.

If you want to complete the list, select the list, in bottom left portion of the “Data Source” dialog box, and click the “Edit” button.

In the next lesson we finally merge the data.

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