NEW!+Mail-merge+from+Outlook+Contacts

=Doing a mail-merge from Outlook Contacts=

If you use Outlook as your personal information manager (pim) and regularly update it with all the vital information on your contacts, you probably have a good mail merge data source. Fortunately, just as you can use Excel spreadsheets as data sources for a mail merge function, you can use your Outlook contacts folder(s) as a source for your Word mail merge documents.

If you don’t use Outlook to manage information on your contacts or don’t keep the information updated, now is a good time to start doing so. Updating the information incrementally, as you receive it or when it changes, will save you a lot of time when it comes time to send out letters to your contacts. Instead of having to create a Word data source or an Excel spreadsheet for mail merge, entering all the information into the file, your data will already be at your fingertips – effectively serving a dual purpose. While there are no special steps required to prepare your Outlook data for the mail merge, you will want to make sure all the fields you intend to use in the merge are current and complete. If they’re not, you should take the time to update them before you move on to the next step.


 * Setting up the Main Document**

With a new, blank document open, select the **Mail Merge Wizard** on the Task pane options list; if you are unfamiliar with the Task pane or how it works, you can refer to this [|tutorial] or this [|tip] for more information.



In the **Mail Merge Wizard** pane, select the type of document you wish to create. For this tutorial, click the radio button beside **Letters**.



Then, at the bottom of the pane, click **Next: Starting document:**



In the **Mail Merge Wizard** pane, step two will appear, asking you to specify what document you want to use to set up your letters:



Since we are going to create a new document, first click the radio button beside **Use the current document** and then **Next: Select recipients** at the bottom of the pane.

Under **Select recipients**, click **Select from Outlook contacts**



Under **Select from Outlook contacts**, click **Choose Contacts Folder**



In the **Select Contact List Folder** dialog box, you will see a list of all your Outlook folders which contain contact items (If you wish to use recipients from multiple folders, you will either need to move the contacts to a new folder in Outlook or perform two merge operations)



Highlight the folder you would like to use

click **OK**

You will be presented with the **Mail Merge Recipients** dialog box. You can use the check boxes on the left most side to select or deselect recipients; further, you can sort the list by using the arrows in the column headings



Click **OK**

Click **Next: Write your letter**



In the document area, begin typing your letter.

To insert the address, click **Address Block…** on the **Mail merge Wizard** pane:



The **Insert Address Block** dialog box will appear asking your for more options:



You can change how the recipients name will appear, specify whether to insert the recipient’s company name, and choose options for the address address; the preview are will show you how the address will be inserted in the document. Once you have made your choices, click **OK**.

Where you inserted the address block in the document, you will see << <<**address block**>> >>. The arrows indicate that it is a field, and since it is a block containing several fields, there are four arrows on each side, as opposed to two arrows for singular fields. If you would like to apply any formatting to the field, highlight the entire field, including the arrows, and then use shortcut keys or the formatting toolbar buttons to specify the formatting options.

To insert a greeting line, click **Greeting line…** on the **Mail merge Wizard** pane.

The **Greeting line** dialog box will appear prompting you for more input on how you want the greeting line to read:



Once you use the drop down boxes to make your changes, click **OK**. You will see the field name surrounded by arrows.

To insert other fields, click **More Items…** in the **Mail merge Wizard** pane. The **Insert Merge Field** box will appear



Highlight the name of the field you wish to insert by clicking on it, click **Insert** and then **OK** to insert the field. If you want to insert a few fields in succession, follow the same steps, but don’t click **OK** until you’ve inserted the all.

Finish typing your letter.

When you are finished, click **Next: Preview your letters** at the bottom of the pane:



The letters will appear in the document area, the field names replaced by the data from your data source. You can use the navigation buttons on the **Mail merge Wizard** pane to flip through the letters:



You can make any changes you want to the document. **Remember that if you make a change, you are not changing an individual letter – you are changing the main document and it will affect all the letters once they are merged.** You will have the option of changing individual letters in the next step before you print them.

When you are done previewing your document, Click **Next: Complete the merge**:



Before the data and the document are merged, you are given the choice to edit individual letters.




 * Choice 1**: If you just wish to merge the data with main document without making any individual changes, click **Print** on the **Mail merge Wizard** pane. The **Merge to Printer** dialog box will open:



We are going to print all, so click **OK**. The **Print** dialog box will appear; you can interact with it as you would with one for a normal document.


 * Choice 2**: Clicking on **Edit individual letters** will bring up the following dialog box:



For this tutorial, we are going to merge all records with the document, so click **OK**. A new Word window will appear containing the merged letters. In this window you can scroll through them all, make any changes or additions to them on an individual basis, and then print them as you would a normal document. You can also save the file for future use. You will still have the merge document.


 * Source**: http://wordprocessing.about.com/cs/introtowor1/a/wordoutline_3.htm