Kitchen Table Publisher

Mail Merge with a Form Letter in Microsoft Word 97

Written by Julie A. Zagorski

Now that my career with Internet Daily News has begun, we've shared some information with desktop publishing. I decided to start this week with a feature about Word 97. Don't jump ship yet, however, this will take help from all of the readers too. Being aware of all the "how-to's" available on the web, a little bit of insight as to what you really want to know may benefit everyone for future issues.

While contracting for Microsoft, providing product information to in-store customers can develop some interesting results. There are quite a few interesting questions shared. One of which was how to merge addresses into a letterhead using a form letter. Thankfully, experiences like these spur the imagination to share with you.

First, congratulations are in order for your purchase or usage of Microsoft Word 97â. It can be a little intimidating when the Word screen first opens up to reveal the toolbars and advanced window options available. You can customize these features into making the product truly productive. Often, during the coarse of producing that 100^th letter, the idea has probably occurred that there has to be a better way. Take comfort, there is. A few basic setup steps are required first; the steps provided in outline form below will assist you in the design. For keyboard short cuts, notice the underlined letter in the menu descriptions. You can obtain these options by holding down the Alt key plus the letter underlined.

Word naturally places a blank document on the screen upon opening of the program. Click on File then Close to close this blank document.

Microsoft Word97 has multiple forms available to achieve the style you want. Click on the individual tab settings on the new file screen to display the form example. (Note: The style examples showing background images or shadows will print with your text.)

1. To create a new letter, click File on the menu, then New (Ctrl + N), and then select a letter template.

2. On the Tools menu, click Mail Merge.

3. Click Create, click Form Letters, and then click Active Window.

The active document becomes the mail-merge main document.

4. Click Get Data.

To create a new list of names and addresses in Word97 , click Create Data Source, and then set up the data records.

Note: To use an existing list of names and addresses in a Word document or in a worksheet, database, or other list, click Open Data Source. To use addresses from an electronic address book, click Use Address Book.

5. After you designate the data source and Word displays a message, click Edit Main Document.

6. In the main document, type the text you want to appear in every form letter.

7. Click where you want to insert a name, address, or other information that changes in each letter on the Mail Merge toolbar, click Insert Merge Field, and then click the Field Name that you want.

8. After you insert all of the merge fields and complete the main document, click Mail Merge Helper (icon titles will display when the mouse rests on the picture in the toolbar.) on the Mail Merge toolbar.

9. Click Merge.

10. In the Merge box, click Printer.

Note: You can view the resulting form letters before you print them or send them online by clicking Check Errors to preview what the finished document would look like.

To send the form letter only to select addressees, click Query Options instead, and then specify criteria for selecting the data records.

11. Click Merge.

The resulting documents merged with the new merge information individually. Click Window, then Arrange All to see the finished product.

Congratulations! The new merge letter for your mailing list of 500 has completed. Visit the web site for more information from the Help, Microsoft on the Web to Microsoft's Word97 Most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Page menu option.

The goal for sharing information is to assist all readers in developing curiosity that eventually leads to knowledge. The best way to learn anything, especially computer software like Word97 is to experiment. When you have a particular idea on how to make life easier, click on the Word97 Office Assistant enter in plain text what you want to do and click search. The Assistant is there to provide on-line help and suggestions to make desktop publishing simpler. Changing the character of your Office Assistant is as easy as these next steps:

1. Click on the Office Assist Character.
2. Click on Options.
3. Click on the Gallery Tab.
4. Use the left or right arrows to move to other available characters.

Note: Have the Office97 CD handy due to the fact the character files may be stored there.

5. Click on OK when the character is active in the preview window. The Assistant refreshes with the new character choice.

Please share any questions, concerns or ideas for future issues by sending them to juliez@nightowl.net This address will change in future issues.

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