When they made Word XP, Microsoft took one of their best features and made it impossible to use: The Mail Merge Wizard. Although the basic steps are all accounted for, they seem obscured by the items that are new with XP.
Here are the steps you need to take to get through a Word XP mail merge without missing anything:
- Merge a Letter Already Created
- Open your mail merge letter or a blank document.
- Go to Tools-->Letters and Mailings-->Mail merge wizard.
- You are now on Step 1 of the Mail merge wizard. Choose Letters at the top and hit Next: Select Document at the bottom.
- You are now on Step 2 of the Mail merge wizard. Choose Current document at the top and hit Next: Select Recipients at the bottom.
You are now on Step 3 of the Mail merge wizard. Choose Use an existing list at the top. Press the Browse button to get your list, making sure you change the Files of type to the type of file in which your data resides. Press Ok. You may also need to choose which spreadsheet, table, or query you want to get your data from, depending on the type of file. Press Ok. Now your data list comes up. All of the records in your data should be check marked. If you only want to choose certain records, uncheck the others. At the bottom, choose Next: Write your letter.
You are now on Step 4 of the Mail merge wizard. Write your letter if necessary. On the task pane at right, choose More. (More is generally used in software to describe items that might be seldom used. In this case, this is where we find the mail merge fields that we always use.) Insert your merge fields in the appropriate places in your letter. If you want to repeat a merge field, for instance, a person’s name, throughout the letter, insert the merge field at each location you want it to appear. Press Next: Preview your letters.
You are now on Step 5 of the Mail merge wizard. You can use the left and right arrows on the task pane to see what your merged letters will look like. Hit Next: Complete the merge.
You are now on Step 6 of the Mail merge wizard. At this point, you have the option to Print your letters or to Edit individual letters. If you’re familiar with previous versions of Word’s mail merge, you should hit Edit individual letters, then choose All. This gives you a document that contains all your merged letters—which is what we’re used to from previous versions. We all know that when printing a bunch of documents, we could easily choose the wrong tray, the wrong paper could be in the tray, or some error could occur. We suggest saving this file and THEN printing it, especially if it contains more than a few letters. You can easily delete the file after you’ve successfully printed it.