Mail Merge - Word Template (Platinum Version Only)

Once you have created one or more Mailing Lists in OfficeReady Platinum, you can create a Mail Merge using your Mailing List(s). There are a few important points to take note of before creating a Mail Merge:

1. Mail Merge can only be performed on Word templates. Excel templates and PowerPoint templates cannot be merged.

If you attempt to create a Mail Merge using a non-Word template, you will receive the following message:

Creating a Mailing Merge using a Word template will be explained below.

NOTE: You can also Merge any Word Document (even those not created in OfficeReady) on your machine. For more information, click here.

2. Mail Merge can only be used once you have created a Mailing List in OfficeReady Platinum.

If you try to create a Mail Merge, and you do not have any Mailing Lists stored in OfficeReady Platinum, you will see the following message:

Click OK to close this message. You can then create a Mailing List to use in a Mail Merge (see the Mailing Lists section).

 

Creating a Mail Merge

Once you have your Mailing List stored in OfficeReady, and you have decided which Word template to use (see above), you are ready to Create a Mail Merge. There are two ways to begin a Mail Merge:

Method #1: Highlight the Word template you wish to Merge, and click Mail Merge - Selected Template at the top of the Template Browser, as shown below.

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Method #2: Right-click the Word template you wish to Merge, and select Merge Template, as shown below.

Method #3: Merge any Word document on your machine. for more information, see Merging a Saved Word Document.

Selecting Mailing List(s)

You can now select which Mailing List(s) you would like to use.

Select one or more Mailing Lists to include in your Mail Merge, and click Next to continue. You will now see a list of the contacts in the Mailing List(s) you have selected to use:

All contacts with a check box selected will be included in the Mail Merge, and all contacts with a check box cleared will not be included. To select all contacts in the list, select the Select All check box at the bottom left of the menu. To deselect all contacts, clear the Select All check box.

After you have selected all of the contacts you wish to include in the Mail Merge, click Next to continue. This will open the template in Microsoft Word.

Note: You may be asked to apply your profile and/or be given instructions on how to insert an image, depending on your settings (see "Using the Template Browser->Opening a Template").

 

Once the template opens in Word, you should now see the template, as well as the OfficeReady 4.0 Platinum Toolbar (along with the Mail Merge Tools).

Note: If you are using Word 2007 (like in the examples below), the OfficeReady 4.0 Platinum Toolbar is located in the Add-Ins tab in the Word 2007 Ribbon.

 

Inserting Merge Fields

To insert a Merge Field, choose where you want the Merge Field inserted by positioning the cursor in the template. Next, click on the Insert Merge Fields button on the OfficeReady 4.0 Toolbar. This will open the Merge Fields List:

Choose the Merge Field you wish to insert, and click Insert. The Merge Field will be placed where you have positioned the cursor:

As you can see above, the Merge Field has been inserted. Once you are finished, click the Close button to close the Merge Fields list.

 

Previewing Your Mail Merge

Once you have inserted all of the desired Merge Fields and edited your template, you are now ready to Preview your Mail Merge. Before you Preview, you will notice that you only see the Merge Fields, and none of the actual information. To see what the template will look like once the Mail Merge is completed, click on the Preview button on the OfficeReady 4.0 Toolbar. Once the Preview button is activated, instead of seeing the Merge Fields, you will see the completed information. Here is an example:

Without Preview:	With Preview:

As you can see above, the FirstName Merge Field is now populated with the first name Robert.

You can also cycle through all contacts included in the Mail Merge by using the Back and Next buttons in the Preview area of the OfficeReady 4.0 Toolbar. Using the arrow buttons will allow you to see a preview of each copy of the Mail Merge document, one copy for each contact included in the Mail Merge. Below is an example what you will see when cycling through the Previews:

Contact:	Preview:
1
2
3
4
5
6

 

Adding / Removing Contact(s)

If you have created your Mail Merge, the contacts for your Mail Merge have already been chosen. However, there may be contacts you need to add to, or remove from, the Mail Merge. OfficeReady 4.0 Platinum helps you accomplish this with the Add/Remove Contact(s) feature. To add or remove contacts once the Mail Merge template is already open in Word, click the Add/Remove Contact(s) button on the OfficeReady 4.0 Toolbar. This will bring up the Add/Remove Contact(s) Menu:

Consider this a new contact selection process entirely, with your previous contacts already chosen. All checked contacts will be added / kept in the Mail Merge, and all unchecked contacts will be left out / removed.

Here is an example:

Notice that the Mailing List included in this Mail Merge is checked, and the other two Mailing Lists are unchecked. Selecting a previously unchecked Mailing List will add its contacts, and clearing a previously selected Mailing List will remove its contacts. Once you have selected the Mailing Lists to be included, click Next. You will now see a combined list of contacts from the selected Mailing List(s):

We see above that all of the contacts which were previously selected are still selected. If we clear a contact's check box, that contact will be removed from the Mail Merge:

In this example, the contact "Robert" will now be removed from the Mail Merge.

When you are finished, click the Done button to return to your template in Word.

 

Printing Your Mail Merge

Once you have finished editing your template, and your contact list is set, you are ready to print. Click on the Merge to Printer button on the OfficeReady 4.0 Toolbar to bring up the Merge to Printer menu.

Here, you will see three options:

All - Print all documents in the Mail Merge; one document for each contact.

Current record - Print the current record being previewed, as indicated by the preview button in the OfficeReady 4.0 Toolbar.

From - Enter the numerical records you wish to print, as indicated by the preview button in the OfficeReady 4.0 Toolbar.

Choose the records you wish to print based on the above options, and click OK to send the Mail Merge to the printer. This will open up the Print dialog box, identical to what you would see if you were printing a normal Word document. Choose your printing options, and click OK to print your Mail Merge.

 

Saving Your Mail Merge Document

With OfficeReady 4.0 Platinum, you can save a Mail Merge document for use in future Mail Merges.

Save your Mail Merge document just as you would any other Word document. For Word XP or Word 2003, select File->Save or File->Save As. For Word 2007, click the Office icon at the top left and select Save or Save As. Choose the location to which you would like to save your Mail Merge Document, and click OK to save.

Your Mail Merge document is now saved for future use.