{"id":1006,"date":"2011-11-15T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vm-officeblogs.cloudapp.net\/2011\/11\/15\/the-excel-part-of-mail-merge\/"},"modified":"2022-07-25T07:32:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T14:32:59","slug":"the-excel-part-of-mail-merge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/the-excel-part-of-mail-merge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Excel part of mail merge"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hey, the holidays are fast approaching, which means you’ve got to get your cards signed, sealed, and delivered! This post goes out to those of you who keep your address list in Excel<\/strong> and need to figure out how to use it to create mailing labels in Word<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Creating labels can be intimidating, mainly because there are a number of intricate steps to follow and you’re typically working with different programs\u2014in this case, Excel and Word. And if you create labels infrequently, it’s hard to remember what to do and what to watch out for.<\/p>\n Learning how to make your Excel address list magically show up on your sheets of\u00a0labels boils down to five basic steps:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This post is about that first step\u2014the one where you prepare your address list in Excel so that you can use it in Word. If you get this part of the process right, things will run more smoothly when you’re setting up your labels in Word.<\/p>\n The key thing to understand is that your column headers, or categories,\u00a0in Excel will become merge fields<\/strong> (placeholders) in Word. Each merge field corresponds to a piece of the address on the label\u2014first name, last name, street address, and so on.\u00a0Word pulls out the information\u00a0in\u00a0your Excel columns and plugs it into the corresponding\u00a0merge fields, with an end result that looks something like this:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When setting up\u00a0your address list\u00a0in Excel, consider the following tips:<\/p>\n By the way, if you want to create labels from your Outlook contacts, you can do that without first importing the contacts into Excel. Word can access your contacts directly from Outlook during the mail merge process.<\/p>\n Once everything is set up in Excel, you’ll need to open Word and start your mail merge (Mailings<\/b> tab\u00a0|\u00a0Start Mail Merge<\/b> group\u00a0| Start Mail Merge<\/strong>).<\/p>\n I know darn well you do! Please feel free to leave them in a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey, the holidays are fast approaching, which means you’ve got to get your cards signed, sealed, and delivered! This post goes out to those of you who keep your address list in Excel and need to figure out how to use it to create mailing labels in Word. Preparing your addresses in Excel<\/h2>\n
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Now, on to Word<\/h2>\n
Do you have tips to share?<\/h2>\n
\nCreating labels can be intimidating, mainly because there are a number of steps and you’re typically working across different programs—in this case, Excel and Word. Read on to learn best practices for preparing your address list in Excel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"content-type":[4035],"product":[4047,4036,4075],"audience":[4101],"tags":[],"coauthors":[4880],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","content-type-tips-and-guides","product-excel","product-microsoft-365","product-word","audience-personal-and-family"],"yoast_head":"\n