Using the Wizard:

If you are not sure about the sequence of steps to bring the merge to a successful conclusion, you can use the Merge wizard.
This wizard, which is divided into six steps, makes it all a little easier for us.
Click on the “Start Mail Merge” button under “Mailings” tab in the ribbon, and select “Step by step Mail Merge Wizard” from the drop-down menu.
This opens the “Mail Merge” task pane on the right side of the window.

In the first step of the wizard, we select the document type.
We have the “Letters”, “E-mail”, “Envelopes”, “Labels” and “Directory” options.
For this example, the default selection, “Letters”, is fine, so I click the “Next” button at the bottom of the pane.
This brings us to step two of the wizard.
In step two of the wizard, we determine the document we want to use.
For this we have three choices:
1. Use the current document.
2. Start from a template.
3. Start From An existing document.
In this example I select the first option “Use the current document.”
Click the “Next” button at the bottom of the pane.
This shows us step 3 of the wizard.
In step 3 of the wizard, we determine the recipients.
Again, you have three options.
1. You can use an existing list.
2. You can use contacts from the Outlook program.
3. Or you can create a new list.
I select the first option, “Use an existing list”, and click the “Browse” button in the task pane.
This opens a dialog box where I can navigate to the file containing the table with my recipients.
I select the file, which is an Excel file in this case, and click the “Open” button.
Because my Excel Workbook consists of only one worksheet and the worksheet is selected, I only need to click the OK button.

This opens the dialog box with all recipients.
We have learnt about the various options in this dialog box in the previous lesson.

Click the “Next” button again.
This takes us to step 4 of the wizard.
Step 4 allows us to type our letter, if this hasn’t been done and, you can insert an address block, greeting line and / or merge fields.
I have already explained this also in a previous lesson.
Click the “Next” button at the bottom of the pane, again.

This takes us in step 5 of the wizard.
Step 5 of the wizard shows an example of our letter again.
We can use the “Previous” and “Next” buttons to navigate between records in our table.

Click on the “Next” button in the task pane, again to complete the merge.
This brings us to the final step of the wizard where we can print all the letters, or edit them individually.
We have already discussed this last option in a previous lesson.

To close the task pane, click the “X” icon at the top right portion of the task pane.

Featured Courses

• Downloading iPad Apps
• Lesson 1: Introduction to Publisher
• Lesson 65: File Formats