Create Bulk Mail Letters Using Microsoft Word Mail Merge
- DO NOT SPAM! Spamming is a serious offence and spammers
have been jailed. Review the federal law and laws in your state before
sending bulk email. Do not broadcast sales or solicitation messages to
individuals from whom you do not have permission. Spamming can result in the
blocking of your domain and email addresses by the major Internet
networks.
- Read the chapter titled “Broadcasting Features in Detail”
in the Administration Manual.
- Familiarize yourself with Mail Merge process for your
version of MS Word.
- Verify that the contact records for the mailing have been
assigned to a special interest group.
- Click Contacts report icon on the Site Administration
Menu.
- Select the report called MailListExportReport from the
list by clicking on its label. See tutorial titled “Creating Custom CSV
Export Files” to create custom merge files.
- Select the desired Special Interest Groups by clicking on
their label. You may select multiple items by using ctrl-Click.
- Click on the Create Export File button and save the CSV
file to your computer. Don’t forget where you saved it and its label,
you’ll need to recall it later.
The following instructions are
specific to Microsoft Word 2000 and serve as an example. Procedure will vary
from one version to another. If you are using a different mail merge or word
processing application review the section on merging delimited database files
in its manual.
- Open a blank document in Microsoft Word. Then, select Mail
Merge from the Tools command menu.
- Click on the Create button of the Mail Merge Helper dialog
window.
- Select Mailing Labels… from the pull down list of the
Create button.
- Select Open Data Source… from the Get Data button pull
down selection list.
- Locate the CSV file you saved earlier.
- Select the appropriate settings for your letter paper or labels
- Select the fields you wish to show on your letter or labels
by selecting from the Insert Merge Field button.
- When the layout is complete, click on the OK button.
- Review and print.