The Excel Mail Merge process is set out below – if you haven’t done it before, you may find it a bit intimidating, but hopefully these steps will explain it clearly, and once you’ve done it once it’s easier the next time!
For this example, we will create labels with “fields” (items appearing on the labels) as follows:
Name, Address1, Address2, and County
The labels used have 3 labels across, and 8 down, with margins.
You’ll need to create an Excel spreadsheet with columns as follows:
“Name”
“Address1”
“Address2”
“County”.
Make sure you have these titles in the first row.
Then in Word, go to the “Mailings” tab on the top of the page. Click “StartMail Merge” then “Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard”.
Select Document Type “Labels”, then click “Next” on the bottom right.
Now choose “Change document layout”, then “Label options”.
In the pop up box you need to create a new label, so click on “New Label”, give it a name (I use “6 across 8 down with margin”) and enter your measurements.
For the labels I use, the top margin is 1.1cm, Side margin 0.7cm, Vertical pitch 3.4cm, Horizontal pitch 3.3cm, with page size A4. (If your labels don’t have margins you will need to adjust these figures).
Label height is 3.4cm, Label width 3.3cm, Number across is 6 and Number down is 8. Then click OK.
Now at the bottom right of your screen go to Step 2 of 6, “Select recipients”. A new window will pop up showing your files – go to the folder where your Excel file is and double-click on the file name.
Assuming you get a pop up window asking you to “Confirm data source”, click OK. Next you should get a window saying “Select table” – this shows the various tabs in your spreadsheet, so pick the tab where the data is – likely to be “Sheet1”, and also make sure that the checkbox is checked where it says “First row of data contains column headers”. Click OK.
A list of recipients should pop up, again click OK. Your document should have changed to show “<<Next Record>>” in all the table cells.
Click inside the first cell, and from the menu near the top of the screen, click “Insert Merge Field”.
Click “Name”. Now go down to the next line (Enter!) and then click “Insert Merge Field” again and choose “Address1”.
Then go down to the next line and do the same for “Address2”, then again for “County”.
Now back up in your menu, you should see “Update Labels” just to the right of “Insert Merge Field”. Click that and your labels should all update with the fields you just added.
Click “Preview Results” to be sure you’re happy with how the labels look.
To finish, click “Finish and Merge” and choose “Edit Individual Documents”. This will create a new Word document that you can save with all the names in it and you can then print as often as you like!