Office Productivity Series: Mail Merge

One of the best things I learned in college was not in a class, it was at my on-campus job.  My on-campus job in the College of Business Advising Office taught me skills in office productivity.  The most import skill I learned was mail merge.  
Before I had a classroom I took that office productivity home I used mail merge for my wedding invitations, my Christmas cards, my daughter's graduation announcements, and back in my professional life my students LOVE the personal touch mail merge brings to handouts and letters.  

Mail merge is a tool in Microsoft Word that allows you to connect a database to a word processing document to create individual letters, labels, cards, envelopes, etc. 

At test time I like to merge names on tests and send to the copier/printer so I know who still needs to complete the test/assignment and I know who all received and returned the document without students having to put their name on it.  

So how do you get started with mail merge?

It is actually easiest if you start with a database, CSV file, or spreadsheet with data.  I like to download my class list from the school records (i.e. Progress Book) to get started. 

First, open Word and select the Mailings tab in Word 2013.

Choose Start Mail Merge.  You can select the type of file you would like to create or if this is your first time, use the Step-by-Step Mail Merge Wizard...

Then choose your database.

Choose an Excel file, CSV, or you can even type a New list in Word by selecting Type a New List...

















Type your letter/document then select Insert Merge Field in the spot you want to put a name or other information.

When finished select Finish & Merge to send the database records (names) with your letters for individual documents.

Office Productivity at it's finest.  
To learn more or practice with a tutorial visit http://www.gcflearnfree.org/word2013/31.