Mail Merge Secrets

Category: Outlook 2000

Mail Merge Secrets

The Mail Merge feature in Microsoft Outlook allows you to create custom recipient lists for things like bulk mailings, or even Christmas cards or invitations by using Word to print the envelopes. First, select your recipients. Go into your Contacts list and bring up the first person's information. Click Categories, and type a name for your list. If you're creating a greeting card mailing list, type "Holiday Cards," for instance and hit Enter. Click OK. You have created a new Category called "Holiday Cards," and the first card recipient in your Contacts list who you will send a card to is marked as belonging to the Holiday Cards category. Scroll down to the next card recipient on your Contacts list. (There are two easy ways to do that. One is to click the down-arrow in the Contacts dialog and bring up each Contact, one at a time. The other is to clear the Contacts dialog entirely and scan the whole Contacts list until you find the next likely candidate. This latter approach is probably faster if you only have a few people on your Contacts list who should get cards.) Each time you find a card recipient, bring up the Contacts dialog for that person, click Categories, check the box marked "Holiday Cards" and hit Enter. Eventually, all of your card-enabled friends will belong to the Holiday Cards Category. Switch to Category view by clicking the Organize button, then click Use Views, and select By Category from the Change Your View box. Click Organize again, and you'll be in Category view. Click the plus sign (+) next to Holiday Cards, and all of the people on your Holiday Cards list will appear. Select all of the people in the Holiday Cards category. Click Tools, then Mail Merge, and under Contacts pick Only Selected Contacts. Under Document type pick Form Letters or Envelopes. Click OK, and the Wizard whisks you into Word, with the proper data document in tow. You have to pick which fields you want to appear in your holiday newsletter or on your greeting card envelopes, but the Wizard provides plenty of guidance. In the space of ten minutes you'll have everything set to go. The trick by the way, is to work in this direction: start the Mail Merge from Outlook, not Word, and use Categories view to select the Contacts that should participate in the merge.