Microsoft Office offers several ways to merge data from one document into another. We prefer to use Excel over Word. The process is very similar regardless of the choice of document to hold the data needed to be merged. We will produce mailing labels from an Excel document to demonstrate the process. Fortunately, there is a merge wizard to guide us through the process with ease.

The first thing to do is to develop a table in Excel that contains the information you will need for creating your labels.

In this example, we have the names (in two columns), the street addresses, and the City-State-Zip in separate columns. This is perhaps the reason we like Excel over other applications to use for merging. Suppose you had enough labels to warrant sorting by zip code. That's a snap in Excel. There might be other categories in your data table which could be used to sort; say state then city. By using the power of Excel's sorting capability and the filtering process, you could customize your final listing and still keep the table intact for other uses. This may improve your efficiency in actually applying labels on the envelopes and eliminate sorting of envelopes!

Cautions

1. You need to put your data table on Sheet 1 of the Excel book.
2. You need to put your column headings on row 1 of your spreadsheet.

These two items are most important. The merging won't work if you have started your table on row 2 (See the example below.) or you put your table on Sheet 2.

Your Excel document containing your Data Table is saved on your Hard Drive in a location you will remember. (You will have to navigate to its location later.)

Now you should open Microsoft Word.

There is a slight difference in exactly what you do next depending on the version of Word you are using. Word 2002 and Word 2000 locate the Mail Merge feature in different places. For purposes of this tutorial, we will use Word 2000. (The processes are very similar with other versions of Word.)

Now we will select the Mail Merge from the Tools menu item.

 

When you select the Mail Merge option, you will see the Mail Merge Wizard to help you through the process. Microsoft was very nice in anticipating that you might need help even with only 3 steps!

Follow along as we execute these three steps. The wizard suggest we start by clicking on the Create button.

	The Mail Merge Helper will guide you through the process. The text at the top of the panel suggests what to do next. Also note, the other button choices are not available...making it difficult to make a mistake.
	Select Mailing Labels from the collection of choices.
	We recommend you choose a New Main Document as you will save the final product when you finish.
Navigate to the location of your Excel file... ...and select Open.	This is where you identify the source of the data to the Wizard. You do remember where you have the Excel file with your Table Data?
	Select the Entire Spreadsheet even if you won't be using all of the columns in your Excel document.
	We are not exactly clear why this question comes up since there is only one choice!?!
Note the size of the label is also displayed when you select a Product Number.	This Label Panel lets you indicate the size of the labels you plan to use. The selection system uses Avery's number system since that is quite popular with labels. When you are satisfied, click OK to begin the Merge to fit the label selected.
	This Panel lets you indicate which text field goes where from your Excel document. The Sample Label field is a large view of the actual label. You will position the content on the label in this label field. There is no left and right margin. We generally create a left margin with several spacebars.
	Indicate which specific columns the merge process should use to pull data to produce your labels. Select them one at a time.
Note several label formatting marks. The red lines indicate spacing you create with the Enter key and several Spacebar hits. This spacing moves your text down on the label and creates a small left margin.	Also note the space between FName and LName. The ",space" is needed as is the space between State and Zip.
	The Merge Wizard indicates that you have done all that you need to do to merge the Excel document into mailing labels. Simply click on the Merge button and you are on your way!
	We recommend merging to a new document. Note that if you have blank cells in your Data Table, the "blanks" are not printed.

The final result will be a single page or a series of pages containing your Excel Table Data in "labels" the size you specified on a new word processing document. Simply insert your paper with labels in the printer and select Print.

Note the top and left margins that were created by the Enter Key and the Spacebar hits. You may wish to change the font or size. Choose the Select All and select the choices you prefer. You may also apply style and color to your text.

We recommend you SAVE your document BEFORE printing. If something should go wrong during the printing and you have to reboot your computer, you won't have to rebuild the mail merge again. Also, you might want to print this set of labels again in the future and you would already have it set up for printing.

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