Using Mail Merge to Create Labels

With Microsoft Office Word 2007

  1. Open a blank document in Word.
  2. On the Menu bar, click on Mailings.
  3. On the Ribbon, click on Start Mail Merge. (red above)
  4. Scroll down, and click on Labels.
  5. A dialog box will open to select the options for your labels.
  6. On the Label Options screen that appears, under Printer Information, select your type of printer (probably page printers) by making sure the correct radio button is selected. The Tray: Leave it as it appears.
  7. Under the Label Information, in the Label Vendors field, select Avery A4/A5 from the drop down menu. Under the Product Number field, select J8160 from the drop down menu. You will see the Label Information change to match the labels. *(If you are not using J8160 labels as we did in class, locate the appropriate product number. If you are not using Avery labels, you can change the Label Vendors field, if applicable, or select by size, as that information should be on the cover of the labels you have.)
  8. Click on OK.
  9. The document will now show grid lines to define the size of the labels you have chosen.
  10. On the Ribbon, click on Select Recipients (green above),and then click on Use Existing List. *(There are options to type a new list and to use Outlook contacts, if you keep name and address information there.)
  11. Navigate to the data file that you are going to use and click on Open.
  12. If this is a Microsoft Excel workbook, you will have a screen where you must select the worksheet that contains you data. Select it, and click on OK.
  13. No list will appear, but Next Record will appear on the labels document.
  14. If you want to look at, and perhaps edit you list, go up to the Ribbon, and click on Edit Recipient List (blue above). (If there is a tick in the box, the recipient will be selected. If you click in the box, the tick will go away. If you click again, it will come back. You can also edit the data source from this screen, but it is probably easier to edit you spreadsheet before you begin the labels.)
  15. On the Ribbon, select Insert Merge Field (purple above).
  16. Click on the fields as you want them to appear, so click on Title, then Insert, Click on First name, then Insert……..down to your lastAddress field, then Insert. Click on Close.
  17. Now arrange the label by putting in spaces and line breaks as appropriate. Place the cursor where you want the space to be and press the space bar. Place the cursor where you want the line to break, and press Enter (or Return). In that first label, you can also change the spacing or the margins until the label looks like you want it to be. It should look something like this:
  18. On the Ribbon, click on Update labels (red arrow above). The labels will replicate on the document, like this:
  1. On the Ribbon, click Preview results (gold box above)to see what the merged labels will look like.
  2. Only one page of your labels will show. You can still make changes at this point, if you want to.
  3. When you are happy with the choices, on the Ribbon, click on Finish & Merge (gold star above).
  4. If you are happy to print the document now, click on Print documents, and then on OK. If you want to look at the entire set of labels, click on Edit Individual Documents. A new document will open showing all of your labels, and you can check them again. When you are happy with the results, click on Print…..
  5. You will have two documents open. The first will be a Document1. The second will have a title of Labels1. If you save the document, this will create a document connected to the address list file that you used. If you save the label item, this will save a separate document – not linked to the address list. You can just print the labels and not save either one – but you’ve done the hard work once, so it makes sense to save one of them.