Step 0: What in the world is a Mail Merge?

1. Additional Information Step 0: What in the world is a Mail Merge? This side panel of the instructional is strictly additional info. You DO NOT need to read this section to follow this tutorial. However, all kinds of fun goodies are included in here later for you to check out if you want to learn more. If you want to learn about Mail Merges in a different way, check out a few of these websites: 1. http://www.mistupid.com/technical/mailmerge/ 2. http://www.uwec.edu/help/Word03/MM-wizard.htm 3. http://kb.indiana.edu/data/agjp.html 4. http://www.realultimatepower.net An Example: Think about those annoying credit card offers you get in the mail. They always say something like “Hello, Tom Jones, you have been selected for…” Do you think someone sat down and wrote out 500,000 of those letters with each person’s name? Of course not! Someone wrote the letter a single time, and a computer used some sort of database to put in all of the names and addresses for each letter. • That’s what a Mail Merge is designed to do -- take a repetitive task like re-writing a letter over and over, and automate it into one single activity. • A mail merge has tons of uses that you, as an RA, can use. Some of the examples are: • Make personalized letters welcoming your residents onto your floor. • Make personalized door tags • Create personalized mailers for resident’s mailboxes • Make flyers with different information using a standardized template • All of these suggestions drive at the two things Mail Merges do: • 1. Make things more efficient • 2. Add personalization to standardized document. A Mail Merge is a special tool inside Microsoft Word that allows you to take a single Word file and make as many personalized versions of that file as you wish.

2. Additional Information This Mail Merge, like most, is for a single form letter. However, there is also times when you may want to make an envelope, letter, and note all using the same data. Some of the advanced Word Mail Merge tools let you do this! Step 1: Preparing for the Mail Merge Tutorial You can probably tell there are 4 different spots that we want to do a Mail Merge (First Name, Last Name, Task Name, Date_Task_Due). For clarity, I made all the different sections bold and in different colors. Let’s also take a look at the Excel document that is holding all of the info we’re going to use to make the Mail Merge. We WILL NOT leave this file open, but let’s see what its all about: 1. First, you need to be at least familiar with Microsoft Word and Excel. Don’t be scared if you’re not a ‘computer geek.’ 2. Download/ Open the files we’ll be using. For this tutorial, go to:http://www.angelfire.com/mi4/abaker/mailmerge.htm (yes, you have to type that exactly). Save the 2 files on that page in the My Documents folder on your PC. 3. Once saved, open the file “MailMergeCodument.doc” It will look like this: You may be wondering why we are using Excel. Excel is probably the most common file used for mail merges, although Word tables, Outlook, Access, html files, and various databases also work for Mail Merges. Interesting. It’s a 4-column spreadsheet (columns are the A,B,C,D sections), with 8 different records inside of it (with a title bar on the very top of each column). The 4-columns match with the 4 spots to Mail Merge. A match made in heaven! Okay, we’re done with looking at the Excel file. Be sure to close it.

3. Additional Information We’re assuming that you are using one of the XP versions of Excel and Word. Older versions of Word offer Mail Merge features as well, but the commands are a little different. Step 2: Creating the Mail Merge 4. Merge the Selected Text Once you click the button, the menu that opens will look like this: Make sure you have the button “Database Fields” selected. Select the Field “First Name,” and click the Insert button. Congrats, you just merged the first part of the letter! 1.Open or create the document to Mail Merge (ours should already be open). 2. Start up the Mail Merge Tool A. Go to: Tools >>> Mail Merge B. With the Mail Merge Menu open, go to Edit> “((Title of the Open Document))” C. Get Data >>> Open Data Source >>> Find the “Excel_Data.xls” file 3. Select the words you want to merge: Select a piece of text you want to merge (for this example, select First_Name). Then, click the button up top that looks like this: Did you know that ninjas can chop off heads at the rate of 1,000,000 heads per second! That’s even faster than a hummingbird flaps it wings! (Also, that’s why ninjas have to drink at least 30 gallons of flower nectar a day!)

4. Additional Information If you were a super-geek and REALLY wanted to play around with a more elaborate Mail Merge later, you can use Mail Merges sorting features as well. For example, say you had a list of ALL the students in your resident hall. But, you wanted to make a letter for only the guys on the 4th and 5th floors, you could do so by using the sort function. Step 3: Finishing the Mail Merge & Verify the Completed Work Okay, you’ve merged the First Name, but you still have to merge the other 3 fields (Last Name, Task Name, and Date_Task_Due). See if you can do those three by yourself. You can do the exact same thing as you did for the first Merge, so look back at those instructions if you get confused. 5. Verify the Completed Work When you’re done, your letter should look like this (note how the text you selected for the merge looks a little different now): 4. Finishing the Mail Merge Sometimes, when pirates attack with their laser beams and ninjas are caught off guard, the ninjas wail on guitars ultra hard, and by ultra hard I mean frickin’ sweetly. This causes all of the pirate’s heads to explode and their laser beams to shoot them in the face.

5. Additional Information You may be asking yourself if there is a way to add pictures and images in the same way you add text. A creative solution to this may be to use some of the unique picture fonts that you can download from websites like: 1.http://www.1001freefonts.com 2.http://www.fontfreak.com Look for some of the interesting Dingbat-style fonts they have (each letter is actually a picture). That way, you could use a large-font size letter with the dingbats to create different images on your Mail Merge! P.S. – Check out the Ninja font, it is my favorite! Step 4: Preview the Completed Work & Print or Save the Finished Document 6. Review Your Completed Work Now that everything the work is done, just click on the “View Merged Data Button” to see what your completed work looks like. You can then click the Record Scroll buttons to check individual files. See the image below. 7. Print or Save the Finished Document Congratulations. You are totally done. Well, almost done. To print or save your Mail Merged document, click either the “Merge to New Document” or “Merge to Printer” to either save or print, respectively, all of your final documents. Here’s what the buttons look like: Its important to remember that when you save this document using the “Merge to New Document” button, the new file is no longer a Mail Merge document. Its just a big, fat, long file with all of the different finished files strung together one after another. Did you know that hippos are natural allies of ninjas?