Mail merge in Word for Mac

There are three files involved in creating and printing letters or emails or labels or envelopes using the mail merge process:

• Your main document
  This document contains text and graphics (a logo or image, for example) that are identical for each version of the merged document. The return address on the envelope or the body of a letter or an email message is an example of identical content.

• Your mailing list
  This document contains the data that is used to populate information on your main document. For example, your mailing list contains the addresses to be printed on the envelopes.

• Your merged document
  This document is a combination of the main document and the mailing list. The mail merge pulls information from the mailing list and populates it on your main document, resulting in the merged document—the letter or email or label or envelopes personalized to different people on the mailing list.

What bulk mailing documents do you want to create?

Type of bulk mailing document	Word for Mac 2011	Word for Mac 2016
Letters	Use mail merge to create a form letter. Each letter prints on a separate piece of paper.	Create and print a batch of personalized letters for everyone on your mailing list. Each letter prints on a separate piece of paper.
Email	This feature does not exist for Word for Mac 2011	Create and send email messages for each person on your mailing list with customized information inserted from the mailing list.
Envelopes	Create envelopes by using mail merge in Word for Mac	Create envelopes by using mail merge in Word for Mac
Labels	Create and print labels using mail merge	Create and print labels using mail merge, in which each label consists of a different mailing address.

What kind of mailing list do you use?

Word can pull data from a variety of data sources to perform mail merge. If you don't have a mailing list, you can create one easily during the mail merge process. Here are few simple data sources you can use for mail merge.

• Excel spreadsheet - An Excel spreadsheet works well as a data source for mail merge if all data is on one sheet and the data is formatted well so that it can be read well by Word. For more information, see Prepare your data source in Excel for a mail merge in Word for Mac

• Outlook Contact List - You can retrieve contact information directly from your Outlook Contact List into Word, See Use Outlook contacts as a data source for a mail merge

• Word data file - The Word document should contain a single table. The first row of the table must contain headings, and the other rows must contain the records you want to merge. For more information see, Set up a mail merge list with Word

Now that you have chosen your bulk mailing document and have your mailing list ready, you can proceed with the mail merge.