How to do a Word Mail Merge with Microsoft Access.


This section covers the how to create labels with an Access database. It uses Office 2002 so for people with office 97, the images may be different but the general procedure is the same.

0) Open up Word

1) Select tools from the Menu.

2) Select Letters and Mailings and slide your mouse over to Mail Merge Wizard...

3) Click on Mail Merge wizard...
We want to use the Mail Merge Wizard as opposed to the Envelopes and Labels because it allows us to hook up a database. Envelopes and Labels only prints one at a time

The Mail Merge side bar opens and asks us What type of document we are working on.

4) Check Labels.

You could do envelopes if you wanted but I have found that printing envelopes doesn't work well because the flap you lick and seal the letter is so much of a ridge, it distorts the printing.

Creating form letters is easy as you usually only have to put in a name.

At the bottom of the sidebar is a place to move on.

5) Click Next: Starting document

On this step, you should have the labels to hand that you are going to use for your envelopes. You'll the need them so as to get the product information.

6) Click Label options...

 

7) Select the type of Printer you have.

8) Select how your labels are fed into the pinter.

9) Select the type of labels you are using.

10) Select the product of the labels which is written on the label package.

11) Click OK
12) Click Next: Select recipients

Now we are going to find the database that you want to use for the labels.

13) Click Browse...

Find the database that you are going to use for the mail merge. In this example the database is called database.mdb and is located on the desktop.

14) Click OK.

15) Select the MailMerge table. This table was created in the How to How to create a data source from two Access tables.

16) Click OK

All the recipients should be listed.

You can look through the list and uncheck anyone you don't want.

You can sort the fields of any column by selecting the down arrow beside the column title.

17) Click OK
The words <<Next Record>> appears on each label - except for the first one.

18) Click Next: Arrange your labels

Before you do step 19, ensure that the cursor is in the first blank label - the one without the <<Next Record>> in it.

19) Select Address block...

20) Select a format of how you want the name to appear.

21) If there is no company name then uncheck this box.

22) Leave this box checked

23) If your labels have foreign countries in them, then check Always include the country/region in the address.

The Match Fields Button is useful to ensure that the data is matched up correctly with the data in the Mail Merge Table. It will also show you other fields that you could have used in the labels.

24) Click OK.
The word <<AddressBlock>> now appears in the first label.

We now want to copy the layout of the first label to the other labels.

25) Click Update all labels.
The label sheet on the screen should now look something like this.

26) Click Next: Preview your labels
The label sheet on the screen will now have changed to something like this.

27) Click Next: Complete the merge

Have your label sheets ready to hand.

28) Click Print...

That's it!

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Troubleshooting:

If this procedure didn't work for you, check over your Access database and ensure the fields have data in them or that they have the correct data.