How do I create a mail merge from an Excel spreadsheet?

Mail merges are often associated with sending out newsletters or invitations in bulk. For example, you might have a mailing list that includes hundreds of names, addresses, birthdays, and other information about your customers. In order to send these people personalized messages, it's necessary to insert this information into individual letters on letterhead paper.

In some cases, you may need to edit existing documents instead of creating new ones. This is especially true if you're using Microsoft Office 365 because your document will likely contain many more fields than the standard version of Word (for instance, Mail Merge can't handle lists longer than 100 names). Fortunately, there are several ways to perform a mail merge without having to start over from scratch.

The following steps show how to take an Excel file containing basic contact details such as name, address, phone number, email address, etc., and turn them into a formatted template letterhead suitable for inserting into a Word document. You'll also learn which files (.csv) work best when doing a mail merge.

If you want to follow along with the examples below, here's what you'll need:

An up to date copy of Windows 10 Home edition 64 bit installed on your computer.

Microsoft Word 2016 Standard Edition 64bit. If you plan to open the completed project after finishing the process described below, make sure you've updated to the latest version of Word before continuing.

A.csv file containing at least one column of customer information per row. The format of this file depends on where it was created—perhaps from another program like Google Sheets or Dropbox.

You should now have everything needed to get started! Let's begin by taking our raw data stored in a text file and turning it into something useful. We'll then import it into Excel so we can manipulate it further. Finally, we'll export that data back into a word document ready for merging.

Note: These instructions assume you already know how to set up a mail merge in Word. If not, check out Microsoft's official help page on setting up mail merges.

How do I convert an Excel spreadsheet to a mail merge?

There are two methods available for converting CSV files into formats usable for mail merges. One method uses VBA code, while the second relies solely on formulas. Both produce good results, but they each require slightly different approaches. To demonstrate both options, let's look at an identical sample dataset consisting of first and last names, street numbers, postal codes, city, province/state, telephone numbers, emails, and birthday dates.

Once you run through this example, you'll see why the formula approach works well for larger datasets. But first, let's examine the script option.

To access the Script Editor window, select Tools " Macros " Developer Commands... and click OK. Next, double-click msoCvsReadData. Click New Document followed by Form Control. Enter C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents\MergeTestSample.wsf and press F5 to execute the macro. Once complete, close the editor and return to the main screen. Now, all we have left to do is populate the cells in our spreadsheet with the same values used in our test document. That way, the macros won't fail due to missing entries.

Here's my final result:

After running through this example, you should understand exactly how the workflow goes from inputting data to producing output. Here's how the magic happens behind the scenes:

First, add a blank tab to the end of your current document and rename it as Tab 1. Then, right-click that tab header and choose Format Tabs.. Select All Tabs...on the dialog box that appears. From the tabs menu, drag the newly added tab onto the top position under Main Tabs.

Next, navigate to File " Options " Advanced. Scroll down until you find Mailings & Labels " General Settings. Double-click the field named Create Source Data Files With Headers and Footer. Choose Yes on the resulting dialogue box.

Double-check the path listed for Save Destination Paths and ensure that you have selected Blank Page(s) only. Otherwise, any additional pages inserted in between the cover page and table of contents would cause errors later on. Also, unselect Insert Cover Pages Into Documents.

Finally, scroll down until you reach End User Address Field Separator Text. Type |---+-. on the line labeled Default Output Values. Press Ctrl + S to save changes and exit.

Now, it's time to import this data into Excel. First, create a new Excel Spreadsheet called TestFile1.xlsx and fill it with dummy content just to give it enough columns to hold the headers required for our merged document. Make sure to include spaces between every single entry so that Word recognizes each section as separate rows.

Then, go to File " Open " Import and browse to the location of your desired.csv. When prompted, leave Excel's default settings and hit Finish. After importing the data, head to Home " Find And Replace. On the dialog box that displays, change the dropdown next to Search Mode to Contents Only. Hit Ok.

At long last, we've reached the stage where we can actually utilize this data. It's finally time to put those macros to good use.

Can an Excel spreadsheet be used as the data source for a Word mail merge?

Yes, absolutely! However, since the process involves editing multiple spreadsheets, it's important to keep track of which sheets correspond to which sections within your finished document. Therefore, it makes sense to organize your inputs accordingly during the initial stages.

For instance, the first four sheets represent the Name, Street Number, Postal Code, and City sections respectively. Likewise, Sheet 5 corresponds to the Province / State area whereas Sheet 6 represents Birthday Month. As you can probably tell, this system allows us to easily identify specific areas within the document.

As mentioned above, it's possible to skip ahead to this point provided you haven't saved yet. Before proceeding, make sure to save your workbook as a.docx.

Can an Excel spreadsheet be used as the data source for a Word mail merge a yes b no?

It turns out that you can use almost any type of file aside from.txt, including.csv,.xslx,.xml,.html,.htm,.rtf, and even images. Just remember that anything that's too complex for Excel will most likely throw off the mail merge. Conversely, anything that fits perfectly will automatically become part of the final document. Keep in mind that certain formatting elements may be lost when converted to.pdf, though.

Also, note that if you intend to try to combine multiple types of files, you must apply consistent rules to their naming conventions. Do this correctly, and Word will recognize them as belonging together.

How do I do a mail merge from Excel to Word labels?

Labels allow users to customize the appearance of business correspondence by adding custom graphics. There are three primary types of label styles: lined, flat, and block. Each style offers its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on whether you'd prefer a professional looking piece or simply want to streamline the layout.

When choosing a font for labels, always stick with fonts that support various character sets. Some popular choices include Arial Unicode MS, Courier, Georgia, Times New Roman, Trebuchet, Wingdings, Zapf Chancery, and Comic Sans MS.

Before beginning, open your template document inside Word. Go to Ribbon " Layout " Margins. Check Horizontal Center and Vertical Center. Then, highlight the entire document except for your labels and resize the margins appropriately.

Let's say you have five lines of text in total. To avoid excessive spacing, divide them into pairs by typing ---+. Take a moment to review the image below and pay attention to the dashed boxes surrounding each paragraph. They indicate the maximum width allowed for each line.

By keeping paragraphs to a reasonable length, you prevent the gaps from becoming excessively large. Furthermore, it helps to reduce overall processing times and increases efficiency by reducing memory usage.

Select Label 1, press L to activate the Label Designer toolbar, and choose Line Label Style " Flat Label. Drag the mouse pointer across the entirety of Label 2. Notice how the design automatically adjusts itself according to the space constraints placed upon it. Repeat this action for Labels 3 - 7.

Under the Property Bar, enter your preferred text. Don't forget to adjust the justification and alignment based on your preferences. Lastly, under Font Properties, pick a compatible font. Remember to switch the background color to black.

Repeat this procedure for all labels. While working on Label 8, don't forget to refresh the designer view once or twice throughout the process by pressing Alt + H. Doing so prevents unnecessary redrawing of portions that remain unchanged.

Lastly, save your workbook with the extension changed from.docx to.dotx. That way, Word will treat it as a form rather than a normal document and offer automatic updates whenever underlying conditions change.

Mail merging is one of those tasks that seem so daunting at first but can actually be quite easy once you know what you're doing. In this article we'll explain exactly how to go about creating a mail merge in Microsoft Word using an example Excel file containing contact information for hundreds of people.

If you don't already have a mailing list ready then it's probably best to start by either importing existing contacts or just making some up yourself. If you've got your own database on hand, all the better! The general principle behind mail merges remains the same whatever method you use to get your names onto cards -- if you want to send out personalized Christmas cards, for instance, where each individual card contains different details.

You need to find out who sent which particular card (or group of cards) and insert their name and address onto them accordingly. You also need to include other relevant data like birthdays, anniversaries, phone numbers etc., depending on what kind of greeting cards you intend sending. This process is called "merging" because it combines multiple pieces of information together into one long document.

In short, you're going to write down everyone's personal info on separate cards and put them into one big pile. Then you will take those cards and sort through them until you match everything up correctly. It sounds complicated, doesn't it? But it really isn't. Here are the steps involved in creating a mail merge from Excel.

How do I merge an Excel document into Word?

The easiest way to begin combining two documents such as an excel spreadhseet and word document is to copy the whole lot over. However, there may be times when you might not want to overwrite the original files. For instance, sometimes the Excel document itself has sensitive information stored within it, such as customer account numbers, client lists, passwords, credit card details etc.

To avoid any problems here, make sure you only copy the text contained within these cells, rather than copying entire rows/columns. Otherwise, you could end up overwriting important bits of information that should remain private. Simply right click on the cell(s), select Cut / Copy Text instead of Insert / Paste. Note that this function won't work if you've selected the header row in question.

Next, open up the Word document, paste the copied content into it, and delete the extra copies of the original Excel file. You now have a single merged document made up of both sources.

However, if you plan on printing anything out then you'll need the actual physical paper sheets too. To print directly from an Office product like Word or Excel, choose File " Print Preview... from the menu bar and check Show Document Map before continuing. This gives you a preview of how many pages will appear once printed, plus allows you to adjust settings such as page orientation, number of columns per page etc. Once satisfied, hit OK to proceed.

Note that if your printer supports duplex printing, meaning it prints double sided, then you can skip this part and move straight on to Step 2.

Now comes the tricky bit. How do you deal with the fact that the addresses aren't laid out perfectly in alphabetical order? Well, you can manually rearrange the letters as required, but this takes forever. Instead, you can use Word's Mailings feature. Click on Tools " Mailings and then follow these instructions carefully.

First, add new column headers for Firstname Lastname Street Address City State Zip Code Country. Next, highlight every second letter along the top line of the main Contact Information section. Make sure they're highlighted individually, otherwise you'll end up selecting several adjacent characters at once. Now drag the mouse cursor across each row until you reach the end of this pattern. A small dialog box appears asking whether you'd like to replace those characters with spaces or leave them unaltered. Choose Replace Characters. Repeat this action for every subsequent set of consecutive letters in the Address column.

Finally, head back to the previous screen and click Create Table. From here, you can fill in the rest of the fields as necessary. Just remember to keep things consistent between the various sections. Each piece of information needs to arrive at its destination intact, including capitalization, punctuation marks, spelling errors etc.

At this point, you should still have another tab left relating to Contact Details, but let's finish off by moving on to the last stage, inserting the names into the appropriate places.

By default, Word uses the current year when adding dates and birthdays unless you change it beforehand. So if you haven't done so yet, navigate to Ribbon " Home " Date & Time " Year to pick a more suitable date range. Similarly, you may wish to tweak the Birthdays dropdown. If you want to modify it further, right click anywhere on the calendar interface and choose Modify Current Field.... This opens up the field properties window. Use the Shortcuts button to access useful keyboard shortcuts, while changing the Format lets you customize the output format to suit your preferences.

Once finished, you're almost home and dry. All that's left to do is attach the final document to a PDF and print it.

Can you transfer data from Excel to Word?

For anyone familiar with VBA programming, transferring data between programs like this would normally involve writing code. Fortunately, however, most modern versions of Word come equipped with special tools designed specifically to help users perform basic operations quickly.

One of the most common functions offered by these utilities is known as Find And Select. Using FIND + SELECT, you can search through large blocks of text and pull specific elements out. In this case, you must look for instances of First Name, Last Name, Street Address, City, State ZIP, Country. These items represent the locations where our contact records intersect, and thus form our combined document.

So simply type First Name and press enter to bring up the results pane. Highlight all three entries inside it, then use CTRL+C to copy the contents of the selection. Head back to the Find And Select panel again, but this time input Last Name and hit Enter. Do the same thing with Street Address, City, State ZIP, Country, followed by Finish.

Doing so returns us to the Find And Select tool, except this time we're looking for Specific Phrases instead of words. Type FirstName LastName and press Enter to see the results. Again, highlight all three matches, then hit Ctrl+C to grab hold of the corresponding text. Finally, repeat the same procedure for StreetAddress, City, StateZip, Country. When you're finally done, rename the resulting tabs something sensible such as Names and Addresses respectively.

It's worth noting that even though we didn't have to resort to coding, the overall approach does offer several benefits. Firstly, since Word handles everything automatically, mistakes are kept to a minimum. Secondly, the ability to copy portions of larger chunks of text reduces the likelihood of accidentally deleting vital information. Lastly, the Find And Select functionality makes navigating through potentially complex datasets much easier.

How do I convert Excel to Word without losing formatting?

Formatting refers to the style options used throughout a document. They allow writers to control font size, color, boldness, italicisation, justification, indentation etc. Most often, standard styles are applied automatically whenever someone types certain keywords ("Dear Sir," for example). Unless you override them, editors are unable to alter the appearance of a given sentence.

Unfortunately, converting Excel to Word means losing this level of customization. Luckily, there is a solution -- namely Styles - Convert Cells to Font Tags. As soon as you launch it, you'll be presented with a blank document. Right click on any cell and choose New Style. Give it a name, specify the font family, size and weight, select an option from the Fill Color category, and give it a tag. Hit OK, wait 30 seconds, and voila! Your converted spreadsheet should instantly reflect the changes.

How do you mail merge a table from Excel to Word?

As mentioned earlier, the concept of mail merging works regardless of whether you're working with a pre-existing Excel template or rolling out your own entirely fresh design. That said, it's particularly popular among business owners who regularly produce mass emails based upon a central core of information.

Let's consider a situation whereby you run a company selling high quality products online. Every week, you receive orders via email detailing the exact item, price, quantity, shipping cost, delivery time frames, payment methods accepted, refunds policies and return procedures. Rather than having to retype each entry manually, why not generate a master template with the correct details included?

Here, we'll show you how to achieve the same result using nothing more than Excel. Start by opening up the document that holds your incoming orders. On the ribbon, scroll down to Data Analysis and Forecasting, then choose Generate Report. Follow the wizard through to completion, choosing Customize List Items during the process. At no point are you prompted to enter any additional detail -- this is handled automatically.

Mail merges are great for creating personalized letters, newsletters, or even brochures. But what if you want to customize your letter by adding new people's names or changing other details on different recipients' documents? That is where Microsoft Word comes in handy since it allows users to conduct simple tasks such as merging multiple text files together, importing existing contacts, and much more.

In this article we show you how to send customized letters using mail merges when working between two programs - Excel and Word. We'll also explain how to export tables from Excel to Word so that you can easily edit them later after they've been merged. Finally, we will show you some of the best methods to import huge spreadsheets containing thousands of rows of information without any difficulties.

For those who don't know yet about mail merges, here's a quick introduction before moving forward!

What Is Mail Merge?

A mail merge is basically combining several pieces of texts (or "merge" them) together to produce one big piece of paper. It's often used for printing personalized letters, cards, flyers, etc., but there are many ways it could be applied depending on user needs. For example, let's say someone has written out all their e-mails to friends and family members over the past couple weeks and now wants to consolidate these messages onto a single printed piece of paper. In order to achieve this goal, they would need to write each name down separately, type up unique greetings for every person, and then paste these individual sentences together. However, a better way to handle this task would be to simply make a list of everyone's contact info, including email address and phone number, and print everything at once. This method saves lots of time because you only have to fill in the basic personal details yourself, while others get prewritten via mail merge.

The same principle can be applied to anything else you may wish to include like addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, special days, etc. If you're looking for ways to automate repetitive tasks, learn how to master mail merges. They really aren't difficult to perform provided you follow the steps below carefully. Also note that you should always start off with a draft copy first so that you can see exactly which words and phrases you plan to insert.

Now let's take a look at how easy it is to combine both Excel and Word to accomplish this kind of work. The process outlined in this guide doesn't require any programming knowledge, nor does it involve complicated macros. Our instructions consist solely of straightforward actions performed within menus, tabs, buttons, dropdown lists, checkboxes, and radio buttons. You just need to pay close attention to follow along closely.

Can I mail merge a table?

Yes, you can! Let's assume you already have an excel file filled with customer orders for various products. Now imagine you'd like to mail out a newsletter highlighting these items. Instead of having to manually enter the customers' names and shipping details, you can instead incorporate that information directly into a mail merge. All you need to do is select the range of cells containing customer information, right click on the selection area, and choose Copy Special Formatting... From the menu options, select Paste Values Only.

You can then go ahead and repeat the above steps for additional product categories until you finish copying all the necessary information across. Once copied across, proceed to convert the formatted values back to normal cell formatting. After doing this, you should be left with a clean copy of your original excel table ready to integrate with another program.

After completing these steps, you should end up with a new word document that contains all the information contained inside the selected cells from your excel table. As long as the source data remains intact, everything should function normally afterward.

However, if your data gets lost somehow during the migration process, you can undo the whole thing, open up the target document that was supposed to contain the final results, and reenter the desired data manually. Alternatively, you can try exporting your data to a CSV file and then importing it back into excel again to avoid losing anything vital.

Let's move on to talk about how to migrate data from Excel to Word.

Can you transfer table from Excel to Word?

Here's how to export an entire worksheet from Excel to Word:

Open up the Spreadsheet tab located at the top of the screen. Then, scroll down and locate the Tools menu option. Within the tools menu, find the Export Selection command located under the Data section. Clicking on this button brings up a pop-up window asking whether you want to export your current sheet as either a comma delimited (.csv), HTML (.htmlx), XML (.xml), or Text (.txt). Select Comma Separated Value (.csv) and hit OK.

Once completed, a small box titled "Export Successful!" will appear at the bottom of your browser's page. Upon clicking on it, a larger popup dialog will appear letting you view the exported.CSV file. Notice the top row labeled "Row 1," which indicates the location of the header row in case you were wondering. To access this file, head over to File & Open.... From the dialogue box that appears, navigate to C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\Selection.vba. There, double-click on the VBAProject folder located underneath the Documents subfolder. Inside this folder, you will find a file named Selection.bas referring to the main code module responsible for handling your exported Excel data. Double-clicking on this file will bring up a blank Word Document displaying the contents of your imported Excel sheet.

If you ever run into problems with transferring data from Excel to Word, remember that you can delete any columns, rows, or sheets from your database by selecting the relevant objects and pressing Delete key combination. Or, you can delete your entire database altogether by opening up the VBE editor associated with your document and deleting all instances relating to the object(s) you want removed.

Can you merge Excel data into a Word document?

As mentioned earlier, Word provides plenty of functions for accomplishing certain jobs quickly. One of these functions involves inserting data automatically based on conditions set forth. Here is how you can merge data from excel into a Word document through conditional statements:

First things first, open up your Word document where you intend to place the content generated by the mail merge. Next, select Insert & Table… from the Ribbon. A dialogue box will appear prompting you to browse to where you saved your source data. Navigate to this directory and select Create New Tables…. When prompted to pick a destination for your newly created table, leave it blank and press Enter.

Next, switch focus to the Excel file containing your source data. Head over to Home > Editing group > Find & Highlight Cells… to highlight the specific ranges of cells that contain your source data. Right click on the highlighted area and choose Edit Cell Links… At the prompt, specify Name = [Name], Address = [Address], Phone Number = [PhoneNumber]. Press Finish.

Select Table Properties from the Ribbon. Under Customize Your Table, put a tick next to Conditional format style and change its color to Red. Hit Apply and Close.

Next, return to the Word document. Go to Review Tab > Styles and Font Groups. Choose PlainText Style Group and then select Normal font size. Scroll down to the lower portion of the styles pane and notice the presence of a hyperlink icon. By default, it's greyed out. Left-click on it and select Modify Hyperlink Settings from the context menu. Change Link Type to Application. Set Target Field to /USER/[name].[extension]. Replace [name] with whoever's name you assigned to represent him/her in your source data. Lastly, replace [extension] with whatever extension his/she uses (e.g. PDF).

When done, right-click on the link and choose Assign Category followed by Other Commands. Pick Command Prompt and add the following line of text: wdCategoryType 0(0) -- This instructs Word to treat the specified category as plain text, allowing us to assign it our own custom label. Save changes and exit.

Repeat this procedure for every recipient whose details you want to include in the resulting document. Each instance starts with the name of the person followed by the corresponding extension. Once complete, Word generates a separate output file per person per category.

To summarize, here are the three most effective strategies for migrating massive amounts of data from Excel to Word without issues:

1.) Use conditional statements to automatically generate labels for categories upon creation.

2.) Do not modify hyperlinks whenever possible. Leave them alone unless instructed otherwise.

3.) Avoid using too many fonts throughout procedures. Stick to just 2--4 fonts.