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The latest version of Office for Mac -- Office 2011 -- has great Mail Merge support. Information to a Word document, allowing you to pull contact data into labels. Edit what columns in your spreadsheet correspond to what part of your label. Mail Merge questions - using Mac 2011 Word I bought labels from Greatpapers.com (code 959005) and am trying to use mail merge. They have a downloadable template but I can't get it to sync properly with Mail Merge.
In Microsoft Word for Mac OS X, you can perform a mailmerge or data merge with the Data Merge Manager. These instructionsassume that you do not have a pre-existing source document where yourdata are stored. For more, see ARCHIVED: What is a mail merge?
Word 2011 or 2008
- Open a new, blank document.
- From the Tools menu, select Mail Merge Manager.
- In section 1 of the Mail Merge Manager, labeled 'Select Document Type',click Create New.
- Select the kind of of file you wish to create from the followingtypes:
- Form letters
- Mailing labels
- Envelopes
- Catalog
If you selected either Labels... orEnvelopes..., a dialog box will appear asking you toset up the format that will be used in the data merge. Select theformat that you want to use, and click OK. - Move on to section 2 of the Mail Merge Manager, labeled 'SelectRecipients List'. This section deals with your source document, whichstores the data for insertion into your main document. Click GetList, and select New Data Source....
- The window that pops up contains a list of placeholders that you can usein your main document. A placeholder is a particular type of information,such as a city name or zip code as part of an address label, or anindividual's name as part of a phone book. You may remove any of theseplaceholders by selecting the one you wish to delete and clickingRemove Field Name. Additionally, you may add a fieldby entering a name of your choice for the file into the 'Placeholder list'box, and then clicking Add Placeholder >>.
- When you are finished adding and/or removing placeholders,click OK to continue. The program will ask you to save yoursource file. To do this, in the 'Save As' box, enter aname for the file and click Save.
- After you save your source file, you will see a dialogbox titled
Data Form
. Enter the data you wish to mergeinto the fields in this box. After you have entered all theinformation for one record, click Add New or press theReturn
key to add additional records. When you haveentered all the records, click OK. - Depending on what type of mail merge you chose in step 4, eitheryou will see a new window pop up or you will be returned to your maindocument. In either case, this is when you decide which fields toinclude in your main document and where you want them to appear. Forform letters, catalogs, and envelopes, drag items from the 'Insert Placeholders' area of the Data Merge Manager to your main document. Forlabels, in the
Edit Labels
dialog box, position thecursor where you want each field to appear, click the Insert MergeField menu and choose which field you wantto include. When you have finished, click OK. - In the Mail Merge Manager, you are ready to preview what your datamerge will look like. Next to the word 'Preview Results', click the triangleso that it is pointing down, and then click the View Merged Dataicon (the farthest left icon). This will give you a graphic displayof what your merged data will look like when printed.
- At this point you can go back and make any changes that arenecessary. When your document looks the way you want it to look, goback to the Mail Merge Manager. Next to the word 'Complete Merge',click the triangle so that it is pointing down. If you are ready toprint your merged data, click the Merge to Printer icon (thefarthest left icon). If you want to merge the information into adocument and save it for later, click the Merge to NewDocument icon (the second icon from the left).
- You should now have a new document with your merged records. Youmay print, save, or view this document as you would any other Word document.
Word 2004
- Open a new, blank document.
- From the Tools menu, select Data Merge Manager.
- In section 1 of the Data Merge Manager, labeled 'Main Document',click Create.
- Select the kind of of file you wish to create. You can choose fromthe following types:
- Form letters
- Mailing labels
- Envelopes
- Catalog
If you selected either Labels... orEnvelopes..., a dialog box will appear asking you toset up the format that will be used in the data merge. Select theformat that you want to use, and click OK. - Move on to section 2 of the Data Merge Manager, labeled 'DataSource'. This section deals with your source document, which storesthe data for insertion into your main document. Click GetData, and select New Data Source....
- The window that pops up contains a list of fields that you can usein your main document. A field is a particular type of information,such as a city name or zip code as part of an address label, or anindividual's name as part of a phone book. You may remove any of thesefields by selecting the field you wish to delete, and clickingRemove Field Name. Additionally, you may add a fieldby entering a name of your choice for the file into the 'Field Name'box, and then clicking Add Field Name >>.
- When you are finished adding and/or removing the field names,click OK to continue. The program will ask you to save yoursource file. To do this, in the 'File Name' or 'Save As' box, enter aname for the file and click Save.
- After you save your source file, you will see a dialog box titled
Data Form
. Enter the data you wish to merge into thefields in this box. After you have entered all the information for onerecord, click Add New or press theReturn
key toadd additional records. When you have entered all the records, clickOK. - Depending on what type of data merge you chose in step 4, eitheryou will see a new window pop up or you will be returned to your maindocument. In either case, this is when you decide which fields toinclude in your main document and where you want them to appear. Forform letters, catalogs, and envelopes, drag items from the 'MergeField' area of the Data Merge Manager to your main document. Forlabels, in the
Edit Labels
dialog box, position thecursor where you want each field to appear, click the Insert MergeField menu and choose which field you wantto include. When you have finished, click OK. - In the Data Merge Manager, you are ready to preview what your datamerge will look like. Next to the word 'Preview', click the triangleso that it is pointing down, and then click the View Merged Dataicon (the farthest left icon). This will give you a graphic displayof what your merged data will look like when printed.
- At this point you can go back and make any changes that arenecessary. When your document looks the way you want it to look,go back to the Data Merge Manager. Next to the word 'Merge', click thetriangle so that it is pointing down. If you are ready to print yourmerged data, click the Merge to Printer icon (the farthestleft icon). If you want to merge the information into a document andsave it for later, click the Merge to New Document icon(the second icon from the left).
- You should now have a new document with your merged records. Youmay print, save, or view this document as you would any other Word document.
These quick instructions will show you how to use a Word file containing addresses to make mailing labels
Assumptions:
- You’re running Office 2011 for Mac
- You have a comma delimited file with the same number of fields in each address
- You have already purchased, or plan to purchase labels that match one of the options in Word labels
Your Address File
In the first row you need to put the names of each of the fields you’ll want to identify, e.g. Name, Address, city, state, and zip. Note that I have 5 fields in each address, the title row is separated by commas and each address row also has 5 records separated by commas.
Close this file.
Open a Blank Word Document
Select Mail Merge Manager from the Tools Menu
The Mail Merge Manager
We’re going to simply step through each part of the manager.
Select Document Type
Use the Pulldown under step 1 – Create New, and select Labels
Select Your Label Type
- Find the label manufacturer
- Select the product number (will be printed on the label box
- Review the dimensions and verify from the box
- Click OK
Note that even off brands will say something like “equivalent to Avery 5160” so you don’t have to buy one of the big brands.
Records Showing in Word
Word will lay out the labels for you as shown
Open Your Address List
Under Step 2, Click the pulldown for Get List, and choose Open Data Source
Select Your Address List
Add the Fields You Want to Print
This is where you will select the fields you want to print, the order in which to print them and how they will be displayed
Choose the Fields
Use the Insert Merge Field to choose the Name
All Fields Selected
Keep adding fields, using the enter to separate lines, and commas to separate city/state and space or comma before zip. click OK
Review Fields
Review the fields on the page to verify that they are as you expected
Merge to New Document
As tempting as it is to stick your highly priced labels into the printer and click Print under Complete Merge, don’t do it. I promise you something will be wrong and you’ll have wasted money.
Instead click the second button to Merge to New Document
Review Labels
This creates a new document with your labels. I always print this on plain paper and hold it up to a bright light with the real label paper behind it to make sure no one’s address slops over a line. This can often happen with long addresses, or where a husband and wife have two different names. I like to correct these before printing.
After circling back to this point and getting an acceptable print, you are free to stick your highly priced labels into the printer and simply print as you would any other document.