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



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


The days of typing up addresses by hand are long gone thanks to the power of Mail Merge in Microsoft Office 2010. With this feature, you can create custom letterhead documents that include customized information like names, titles, phone numbers, email addresses, and more. This is also known as "mail-merging."

Mail merge is often used for business letters but it's just as handy when creating any type of document including newsletters, annual reports, brochures, invitations, envelopes, labels, and even greeting cards. In fact, there are so many uses for mail merge, we have a separate article on all those different ways!

In this tutorial, you will see how easy it is to combine multiple lists using mail merge technology and then output them to a word document. Let's get started.

How do you mail merge Excel data into a Word document?

First open a blank Word Document. You’ll be working with one document throughout the process. Select File --" Options --" Proofing. Then click AutoCorrect Options… in the left sidebar. When the dialog box opens, make sure the radio button next to Grammar is selected. Click OK. If you don't want to enable auto correct, uncheck the box next to Grammar. Next, select Compose & Insert --" Enter Address Information –" Fill Fields (or whatever fields you need). The first column of cells should contain First Name, Last Name, Street 1, City, State/Province, ZIP Code, Phone Number, Email Address. Leave everything else empty.  Note: You may not want to fill out every single field depending upon what you're printing. For example, if you only plan on sending an invitation to someone who lives within 100 miles of you, leave off their home state and city. Just complete the rest of the fields. That way they'll still receive your invite if you accidentally put their entire street name in another cell.

Second, go to Data --" Get External Data--" From Text or Table... And choose Personal Names from the dropdown menu. Go ahead and click OK. It might take awhile before the data appears in the text box. Don't worry about entering anything yet. We haven't filled out these columns yet. Once the external data loads, copy all of the cells (including the ones containing formulas) into the appropriate locations in the sheet where you previously entered the names. Note: Do not delete the formulas. They play important roles later. Now let's move on to other parts of our spreadsheet.

Third, head back over to Data --" Get External Data--" From Text or Table... Choose Invitation List from the dropdown menu. Copy all of the rows into the appropriate location above where you copied personal names. Again, do not delete the formulas. Also note, the table must show exactly 3 sections of 10 rows each. So if you try to add additional entries to the top row, it won't work.

Fourth, return to Main Menu --" Design Tab--" Create Label Layout. Make sure that the label layout shows three columns per page. Under Columns Per Page, enter 6. Head back to Design tab--" Labels area--" Set Up Labels. Look at the bottom part of the screen where it says Labels in Row 2. Here you will input the number of labels per line. Your labels will appear in Rows 5 through 9. Input 8 here. Change the font size to 11. Press OK. Return to main menu--" Review Area--" Preview. Notice how the preview looks now. All of the labels look pretty good. One caveat though - notice that some people have two last names listed. As discussed earlier, we probably shouldn't duplicate anyone's full street name unless it was necessary due to errors.

Fifth, head back over to Design tab--" Labels area--" Set Up Labels. This time change the font style to bold. Change the width of the column to 0.125 inches. Remember, you've already set up labels to have eight characters per line. However, since we changed the font style, each character takes up less space because the font isn't very wide. Therefore, instead of having four lines per card, we end up with five lines per card. Adjust the height of the second column until you achieve five lines per card. To keep things consistent, adjust the heights of all subsequent columns accordingly. Be careful not to exceed nine lines per card. Otherwise, you could possibly run out of room and lose formatting.

Sixth, head back over to design tab--" Labels area--" Set Up Labels. Change the color of font to red. Keep the background color white. Increase the Width from.125 inch to.15 inch. These changes ensure that the labels stand out against the white background.

Seventh, head over to Main Menu--Design--" Print Area--" Preview. Check to see if you achieved the desired results. If not, tweak settings further as needed.

Eighth, head over to Main Menu--Print--" Finish Printing. Select the checkbox labeled Include Cover Pages.

Ninth, save your project file to disk. Open the file again. Look at the upper right corner of the window. There should be a bar graph showing the progress made towards your final goal. At least, that's what happens during testing.

Now that you know how to perform a mail merge, let's walk through the steps required to actually send out invites via mail.

How do I merge data from Excel into a Word document?

You will need to follow similar procedures for merging data into either Word or PowerPoint presentations although certain details differ slightly between presentation types.

For instance, with presentations, you usually won't encounter duplicate records. Instead, it's likely that you will have missing values where no contact exists.

With Word, however, duplicate records are common. Typically, you'll find both duplicates and misspelled names. Fortunately, most modern spell checking applications fix typos automatically.

If you have an older version of Microsoft Word installed, you can access the same functionality in Word 2007 by heading to Ribbon--" Tools–" Contact Sheet Editor. But for purposes of simplicity, we'll focus on Word 2003 and newer versions.

Here's how to start combining two different sources of data:

First, load your source data into a worksheet.

Next, insert a section break to indicate the beginning of a new group of labels.

Select the first record in the range.

Go to Home--" Formatting--" Font. Find the Font Style option at the top of the options and select Bold. This will apply the bold styling to the entire selection. Ensure that the format remains consistent across all labels.

Head back to Home--" Alignment--" Horizontal alignment. Use Right justified for all labels.

Do the same thing for Vertical alignment except choose Top Center rather than Bottom center.

Repeat Step 4 until done with all labels.

When finished, save your merged document.



How do I convert mail merge to Word?

If the person receiving your invites has outdated software such as Windows XP, it's possible that he or she doesn't support mail merge. Luckily, converting your mail merge document to Word is simple.

Just download a free tool called WordMerge which allows users to import and export DOCX files.

After downloading and installing WordMerge onto your computer, install Word itself. Open Word and navigate to File--" Import Documents--" Convert Other Word Files.... Browse for the directory holding your converted Word document. Locate the file and double click to open. This will launch Word Merger. Open the original Word document and locate the document header on the top of the screen. On the navigation panel, highlight Conversion Settings.

On the conversion settings screen, under Output Location, browse for your newly generated Word document. Confirm that the file path matches the folder path displayed in the dialogue box.

Click Start Conversion. Depending on the size of your merged document, the program may require several minutes to complete. While it does, you can continue updating your converted Word document by editing your original Word document.

Once completed, close Word Merger and restart Word. Launch Word Merged and view the updated merged document.

Can you use mail merge to generate mailing labels?

Yes, absolutely. Whether you're looking to prepare labels for a companywide event or simply wish to enclose something personalized inside an envelope, mail merge makes it easier than ever. Plus, unlike printed labels, mail merge lets you update your letterheads quickly without worrying about ink costs.

Also, if you're planning on printing labels yourself, consider investing in a thermal printer. Thermal printers are inexpensive and ideal for small businesses. Most cost around $60.00. They produce crisp quality images and allow you to print on plain paper stock.

So whether you're organizing a big conference or simply selecting birthday greetings for family members, mail merge definitely saves money in the long run.

Have questions regarding mail merge? Ask away in the comments below. Or maybe you'd prefer learning how to merge and cleanse address lists. Either way, please share us your thoughts.

If you're using Windows 10, printing addresses is easier than ever before thanks to Microsoft's Mail Merge feature in Office 2016 and later versions of the software. If you have the latest version of Office installed on your PC, then this article will tell you everything that you need to know about converting lists of data such as contact details and addresses into customised mailing labels. But first things first! You'll find the instructions below are pretty easy to follow, but if you get stuck at any point along the way simply consult our guide to creating labels by hand in Word 2013.

We've assumed here that you already have some sort of master list of names and addresses ready to go. This could be something you've printed out yourself (perhaps from a database containing all those customer records), or it might come directly from Outlook Contacts. It doesn't matter where these details came from - what does matter is getting them into the right format so they can be converted by Word itself, without error, into Address Labels.

Here's how we do it...

How do I convert an Excel spreadsheet to mailing labels?

The process begins when you open up the document containing your master list of names and addresses. Select the whole thing (Ctrl+A) and click Open " Save As.... Choose CSV file type, give the file a name, select Comma Separated Values as its File Format and hit OK. The next step is crucial because it determines whether the end result looks good or not! In other words, you must make sure there are no errors whatsoever in each row of information contained within the text strings. To check that this has been achieved correctly, highlight individual cells one-by-one until you arrive at the last cell in the range. Then use Ctrl + C to copy the contents of this final cell to the clipboard. Now paste the copied content back into the original sheet (i.e., delete the copies). Should there still be errors present, repeat the above procedure again and again until all rows contain only correct values. Once done, close down the Excel application window once more.

Now comes the moment of truth. Click Start Mail Merge in Word, choose Create Label(s)... and look towards the bottom left corner of your screen. Here you should see two options: Convert List Data... and Insert Fields Into Document. Make sure whichever option you chose is selected under Destination Type for both fields. Next, ensure that the dropdown menu labelled Source contains entries for both Name & Address (both of which should be populated with columns of data from your master list). Finally, hit Run My Report button. Depending upon how many label sheets you wish to produce, wait patiently while Word processes your output. When complete, you'll be presented with several different sets of finished product.

How do you convert an Excel spreadsheet to address labels?

When you're looking for tips on how to create address labels in Word, you may well wonder why anyone would want to change their existing documents into something else entirely. After all, isn't it just quicker and simpler to start afresh? Well, yes indeed it is. However, if you intend to send off multiple batches of labels over time, it makes sense to keep things simple and avoid introducing unnecessary complications. So let's move straight on shall we? First of all, import your Excel spreadsheet into Word via Edit > Paste Special > Paste Link instead of Cut/Copy. Ensure that the Import Text Files box is ticked. Hit Finish and proceed through the wizard. On completion, you'll see a message saying Your document contains linked references. Press Close followed by Yes to continue processing. You now have a single document filled with data, ready to be merged together.

Next, head to Home"Insert tab and drag a Table object onto the page. For simplicity's sake, resize this table so that it takes up most of the available space on the page. Go ahead and fill the table with data, ensuring that every entry is formatted properly. By default, the column headers are set to appear on top of the table. Right-click across empty spaces between rows, select Modify Header Cells... and double-click one of the highlighted header cells to insert a title. Repeat this action for each row of titles. Also, don't forget to include field codes (see below) wherever appropriate.

Once that's done, take a closer look at the entire layout so far. At this stage, you might like to remove certain bits and pieces from the document so that it can fit neatly inside A4-sized envelopes. These items can be divided among themselves according to the number of pages required. We suggest splitting tables horizontally rather than vertically. Head to View"Page Setup and increase the Width value of the Page Size dropdown menu. Do likewise for Height if necessary. With this done, you can use the Layout toolbars to adjust the size of various elements accordingly. Lastly, save the project as a PDF file.

Finally, launch MSN Internet Explorer and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:631/MailMerge/MMwebAppMaintenance.html. Enter your user credentials and log in. From here, you can alter the settings for your document. Change Preview Mode to Design, and switch Print Settings to Envelopes. Leave the rest of the defaults alone unless otherwise specified. Be aware that you cannot preview your results in real-time while making changes. Instead, save your work periodically and review the resulting output after completing adjustments.

Can you print labels from an Excel spreadsheet?

Yes, you absolutely can! Just remember to stick closely to the formatting guidelines discussed earlier. Of course, if you aren't comfortable doing this manually, consider paying someone else to handle the job for you. That said, you can also opt to download pre-built templates found online. There are even dedicated companies offering services specifically designed to help beginners achieve success. One example is Training HQ, who specialise in training people on how to build mailing labels in Word. They offer free trial sessions covering topics including mail merging, sorting address lists, inserting graphics, adding checksums etc.

For further advice, read our guide How do I integrate my own logo into Word 2010 address labels?

How do you merge Excel files into Word for labels?

In order to merge separate xlsx spreadsheets into a single word document, you'll need to load them into Word individually. Begin by opening the excel file containing the source data for the labels you wish to publish. Next, open Word and locate the Create Labels... function located beneath the Tools heading on the main toolbar. Under the Output section of this dialogue, choose Pdf Embedded Resource. Confirm that the radio button marked Split Labeled Pages Across Sheets is selected. Hit OK, and watch as the program merges all relevant inputted data into a single document suitable for printing.

That concludes part 1 of our series. Part 2 discusses how to design your own business cards, whilst part 3 covers designing flyers. Stay tuned for future editions of Training Tips Online!

Mailing lists are one of the most valuable tools in any business owner's arsenal. They can be used as effective marketing materials such as direct mail letters or postcards, but they also have another use -- converting documents into labels. Mailing labels is a relatively simple process that requires little technical expertise, yet it opens up endless possibilities when working on projects.

If you're looking to create a label project, there are multiple ways to get started. One way is by using Microsoft Office applications like Word 2010 or 2013, which has built-in mail merge functionality. The other method involves creating labels directly within Excel. In this article we'll show you how to perform both methods. We will cover everything from getting ready to send out labels through printing them yourself at home.

Let’s start first by taking a look at what exactly happens during a mail merge. Once you've got some background information about how mail merge works, then you’ll understand why it might not always be obvious to convert a Word document to labels. If possible, take time to watch the video below to see what’s going on behind the scenes.

How does mail merge work for labels?

Mail Merge (also known as "Outlook Address Book" or OAB) uses pre-existing contact data stored in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003/2007 databases. When you open a template file (.oft), which contains all of the fields needed to complete mailings, Windows automatically checks if those database records contain email addresses (or phone numbers). Then, it looks at the name field and compares it against the names found on each piece of paper being mailed. It matches the pieces together based on commonality between two or more people who share similar last names. For example, Smith, John may match up with Johnson, Mary Kathleen because their last names end with the same letter – S - even though these women don't know each other.

The result is that every person receiving something in the mail gets his or her own personalized envelope. This makes sense since everyone on the mailing list shares the same characteristics, meaning they would likely respond to ads, letters, etc., directed specifically towards them.

When sending out printed labels via postal service, the USPS doesn’t need access to anything else besides the envelopes themselves. Since mailers usually receive no additional personal details when they pick up packages, the only thing included with mailers is the return receipt so customers can easily keep track of whether or not they received their items. That said, mail services like FedEx provide tracking numbers for shipments.

In order to make mail merge work properly, it needs three things: A master copy, source files, and a design layout. These are required to produce accurate results. Some companies sell third party software designed to handle mail merging while others hire professional consultants for help.

Now let’s explore different options available for doing a mail merge from Excel to Word documents. As mentioned earlier, there are several advantages to starting from scratch in Excel rather than relying solely on existing templates provided by Microsoft Office.

Here are five reasons why:

1.) You won’t waste money buying high quality labels already made.

2.) There are many more customization options than what can typically be done with default Word mailer labels.

3.) You can save money on postage costs.

4.) Your labels will stand out among competitors' products.

5.) You can tailor every label perfectly according to whatever specific requirements you may have.

We’re talking about customizing a lot here! Customization means adding elements to text fields that aren't present on standard labels. However, the best part about making your own labels is that you control every aspect of their appearance. This includes font style, color scheme, size, spacing, margins, page numbering, header formats, footer styles, row heights, column widths, line breaks, and much more.

There are numerous benefits to having full control over your labels. Here are just a few examples:

You could add special effects like drop shadows, embossed typefaces, watermarks, graphics, images, icons, gradients, textures, and clip art.

You can change colors without affecting other sections of the label.

You can customize headers, footers, and columns to fit your exact specifications.

And finally, you can print your labels yourself. Printing labels is arguably easier than designing them. All you really need is Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Paint Shop Pro, Corel Draw, QuarkXpress, or Xara DesignerPro. Just remember that graphic designers often charge hourly rates, whereas programs such as Photoshop cost around $20 per month. So if you want to spend less money upfront, opt for learning basic designs instead.

For beginners, our advice is to stick to simpler designs that require fewer layers, frames, curves, ellipsis, and blending modes. Don't worry too much about perfectionism either. At least now you know how to turn Word docs into labels. Let's move onto exploring how to go from labels to Word docx.



How do I convert a Word document to mailing labels?

First off, you should check out where all of your labels come from. Are they saved as.dotx files? Or perhaps you have them in PDF format. If they were originally created in Word itself, chances are good they still exist in some form. Now consider opening up all of those files and saving them somewhere safe.

Once you've collected your labeled documents, choose the ones you plan to edit with your final design. Open up the selected label in its original state and load it in Word 2010 (it should appear as an image). Go to File & Print Preview and drag down on the ribbon menu. Select Create Mail Merge Document.

Afterwards, select Insert " Text Box " New Text Box. Double click on the box until it fills up your entire screen. From the Ribbon, navigate to Home > Font tab > Font Group. Click on More Font Options... and scroll down to find LabelFont.

Select it and press OK.

Repeat steps 3–6 for every individual label you wish to edit. Save and close preview mode once finished.

This next step is optional depending on whether or not you intend to submit labels online. But if you plan to upload your finalized product to WordPress, you must include a table of contents along with your main document. To insert a Table Of Contents (ToC): On the Design Tab, right click anywhere inside of the document and select Format Paragraph Groups. Under Paragraph Styles group, double-click the center paragraph symbol (the first one). Right-click again on empty space under the previous selection and select Table of Contents. Copy and paste wherever necessary.

Next, head back to your Master Document and select Tables & Charts. Scroll down to Data Labels section and select Column Names. Highlight the top cell containing column titles and set the Fill Color to white (#FFFFFF). Next, highlight cells containing column values and apply a black fill (#000000). Lastly, repeat steps 5–7 above with the rest of your individual labels.

Save and close preview mode once finished.

How do I mail merge labels from Excel to Word 2016?

Now that you’ve converted your labels to Word, you’re ready to begin setting up your mail merge. Launch the program and import your document(s) via File & Import Spreadsheets…. Navigate to My Computer " Local Disk C " Users " [your account] " AppData " Roaming “ Documents. Simply locate your spreadsheet and select Add Existing Workbook.... Follow instructions on wizard window that appears.

Once imported, follow steps 1–9 outlined previously. Afterward, continue with the following:

Go to Tools & Mail Merge Wizard… Press Finish.

A dialog box will pop up asking whether you'd like to run the wizard again with updated data. Choose Yes.

Follow the prompts and wait for completion. Your labels should now be complete.


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