. You may have heard it referred to with an almost mystical quality.So, what is mail merge exactly? Quite simply, it is a way of placing content from aspreadsheet, database, or table into a Microsoft Word document. Mail merge is ideal forcreating personalized form letters or labels instead of editing the original letter severaltimes to input different personalized information. As you can imagine, this can save alot of time as well as worry about not changing all of the information for the newrecipient.In order to create a mail merge, two documents are needed: a Word document and afile with the data or records. This file can take many forms, such as an Excelspreadsheet, a database, or even another Word document that has a table in it. In thistutorial I will be using an Excel spreadsheet.At the end of this tutorial, you should be able to: 1. Create a new mail merge from a document and a data source using the PC Mail Merge Sidebar Wizard. 2. Edit an existing merged document using the Mail Merge Toolbar or Mailings Tab. 3. Get a taste for creating and editing mail merge on a Mac.This tutorial assumes a basic proficiency with Word and Excel.

Mail Merge on a PC using the Mail Merge Toolbar or Mailings TabThis is the Mail Merge Toolbar for Word 2003. It can be viewed by going to the menubar and selecting View > Toolbars > Mail Merge.The Mail Merge Toolbar can be used to either edit a merge which has been previouslyset up or to create a new one (if you don't like using the Mail Merge Sidebar). The first section is like Steps 2 & 3, creating the letter and choosing the data source. You can use the Open Data Source button (secondone) to change data sources in an already merged document. This is very useful if youhave to send out the same letter over and over again, but the list of recipients changeseach time. Just click the button and browse to your new data source. The second section is like Step 4, allowing you to add fields from your data source. The third button is the `Merge Fields' button whichbehaves like the `More items' choice.The Insert Word Field will be explained in Part III. The fourth and fifth sections are like Step 5. To preview a record, click on the `ABC'button. Then you can move through them with the arrow keys or search with thebinoculars. Also, the button next to the `ABC' one will highlight the merged fields, which