Creating a Form Letter ("Mail Merge")

The process of combining the contents of a database with a letter written using a word processor is called "mail merging". The letter is known as a "form letter". When the form letter is printed, information from the database is automatically inserted into the field 'markers'. This approach can also be used to produce mailing labels.

1. Create a new Microsoft Word document then go to Tools/Mail Merge ...

2. The Mail Merge wizard appears ... Select Form Letters ...

3. Select Active Window to use the document you opened in step 1 (or create a New document if you wish).

4. Open the database that contains the information you wish to 'merge'. In this example the database is called sample.mdb

5. After the database is loaded select Edit Main Document from the pop-up window.

6. The Word document now has two additional buttons on the left of the on the tool bar: Insert Merge Field and Insert Word Field.

7. Click on the Insert Merge Field button to expose the list of fileds available in the database.

8. The field name is inserted in the document between the two special 'markers'. Continue writing your document, inserting fields where appropriate.

9. When your Form Letter is finished print it off in the usual way. One letter will be produced for each record in your database.

NOTE: You can apply "Queries" to select individual sets of  records from the database.

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