You can personalize your letter or flyer with the name and address information from your purchased mailing list. To do this, you must first download a sample list in the same format as the list you will be purchasing. Select the sample list as your mail merge database when you create your Microsoft Word document. This will ensure that the mail merge fields in your document are correct.
Step 1: Download the corresponding sample list and save
it on your desktop.
Right-click the appropriate link below and choose Save Link As...(Netscape) or Save Target As...(Internet Explorer)
- Your list will be in comma-separated variable (csv) format.
what is a csv file? - By using the sample list to create your mail merge document, you will ensure that your document contains the correct mail merge fields.
Step 2: Set up your mail merge document
Open MS Word and click on Tools > Mail Merge.
Click on "Create" and choose "Form Letters" and "Active Window".
Now choose "Open Data Source..." under "Get Data".
Change "Files of Type" to "All File Types" and find the sample list you downloaded earlier.
Step 3: Prepare your document
You can now insert name, address and other merge fields using the Mail Merge toolbar.
Step 4: Test your merge data
If you follow these steps, the merge fields surrounded by brackets (<< >>) should exactly match the headers in the mailing list. If they do not match, this will cause an error.