All Microsoft products are designed with the aim of enabling even a normal user to use the application in the same a computer expert would use. They are also aimed at enabling you to take up even those complex tasks that were usually done by experts only. Mail Merge in MS Word is one such function. It’s available in some Indian language versions of Office 2003.
Suppose you have to send to each of your employees a letter or e-mail message containing personal tax withholding and salary information. Or, say you are offering some products at half-price to your regular customers and you want to mail out numbered coupons so that you can track the response rate.
e-mail message, or coupon individually would take a lot of time. That's where mail merge comes in. Using mail merge, all you have to do is create one document that contains the information that is common in each copy, and add some place holders for the information that is unique to each copy. Word would take care of the rest.
The main document is your starting document. You set it up to be the same size and shape that you want the final letters, e-mail messages, envelopes, labels, coupons or other documents to be. In the main document, you add all the information that will be common in every copy. For example, in an envelope main document, you might type your return address. Or, in a form letter main document, you might insert a company logo and type the message you want all recipients to read.
You also add placeholders to the main document. Placeholders indicate where the unique information will appear and what it will be. For example, you'd add a placeholder for delivery addresses to an envelope main document. Or, you might add a placeholder for first name after "Dear" in a form letter main document.
You can also use mail merge to create directories, such as lists of all of your customers, employees, or products. Unlike labels, envelopes, and other documents you create with mail merge, where each set of unique information appears in a separate document, a directory creates one entry for each set of unique information in a single document. In a mail merge, the unique information is the information that is different in each merged copy that you create.
The examples of unique information might be addresses on envelopes or labels, names in the greeting line of a form letter, salary amounts in e-mail messages that you send to your employees, personal notes about favorite products in postcards that you mail to your best customers or numbers on redeemable coupons.
Then there are several formatting options to choose from that would enhance the impact of your documents. You can WordArt, drawings or organization charts. ClipArt, text boxes, pictures would make you’re your letter or pamphlet attractive and informative. Your chosen color scheme will add to their impact. You will find several other peripheral features to help you create and distribute your letters, mailers and pamphlets in attractive and professional style. Go ahead and make full use of these simple and useful features in your own language.