Monday, April 21, 2008

How to Address Invitations with Mail Merge

If you have entered your guest information into Access Database or Excel, you may create a mail merge to print addresses onto invitations. This can save tons of money in calligrapher or printing fees. Here’s how to create a mail merge.

Queries

If you are using an Access Database, you must first create query. Find the query tab in your database. Click on “new” and choose “design view”. Now you will be asked to “show table” and you will be given a list of available tables. Highlight the one in which all your guest information is listed. Once you have chosen all the tables that you need, close the this box.

Before you are the design fields of your query, with options like: "field", "table", "sort", etc. In the design field titled “field” you may drop down a list from which to choose. You may wish to choose “name” for the first box, and continue to your right, choosing all of the fields you will need for your labels. Be sure to include all fields you may need. For example, if you have typed the info in a field entitled “full name” you may wish to use that. However, if you have entered first and last names into separate fields, you will need to include both in your query design.

When you have finished designing your query, find the icon at the top of the screen underneath the File option. It should either say SQL or have a picture in it. Hold your cursor over it until it drops down and click on the datasheet view option. Give your query a moment to run.


Now you should see all the names of your guests with the addresses and other information you chose to include. If everything is correct, save your query under whatever name you like, for example: "guest labels".


Running a Mail Merge


Now you are ready to run your mail merge. Close your database, and open Word. Click on the Tools option and choose Mail Merge. In the new window, click on create. It will give you the option of what you want to create. You can either choose labels, or if you prefer to print directly onto the envelopes, choose envelope. It will ask you if it should create in the “active window” or a “new document”. Either is acceptable.


Click on “get data” and choose “open data source”. In the new window, change "files of type" to Access Database or Excel Worksheet, whichever you are using. Locate your database or worksheet on the computer and select it. If using Access, you must select the name of the query you have saved your information under. You will now be asked to “set up main document”. After agreeing to this option, Word will ask you what type of labels or envelopes you wish to use. From the list, choose the number that appears on your label package. If using envelopes, find the correct size of the envelope.


In the new window, click on “insert merge field”. You should see a list of all your available merge fields from the query or worksheet. Choose “name” or “full name” –whatever you have saved the names under. Press return to start a new line and insert their “address”. Press return again and insert “city”. Be sure to insert a comma after “city” and then insert the “state” field. And so on. After the last line, be sure to press return one last time.



For example:

<<Full Name>>


<<Children's Name>>


<<Address>>, <<Address 2>>


<<City>>, <<State>> <<Zip Code>>


If most of your guests don't have children or apartment addresses it will automatically skip that field if there is no record in the database, and it will pull the next record up so there is no blank space left.


Once you have put in all your merge fields, hit “okay”. Now choose “merge”. Wait a moment, and all your labels should show up! Check over them to make sure nothing is wrong. If something is spelt wrong, you can correct it right to the label. I recommend printing a test page before you print to labels. Hold the test page up to the blank label sheet and be sure that everything fits properly on the label. Do any tweeking, and then print to the labels.

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