How to Set Up a Mail Merge Data Source in Word 2003

After you set up a mail merge data source in Word 2003, you never again need to type the individual addresses on a mass mailing. Just use the "Mail Merge" sidebar to search your available data sources, select the one you want and merge with your mail document. Here's how.

Things You'll Need

• Word 2003
• Computer

Instructions

1. Go to the "Tools" menu, scroll down and click the "Letters and Mailings" listing. Click on the "Mail Merge" command. This opens a "Mail Merge" sidebar, which will guide you through the mail merge.

2. Choose the type of document that you are going to mail. Click "Next" at the bottom of the "Mail Merge" sidebar. Select your document, then "Next" again to set up the data source for your mail merge.

3. Set up a new mail merge data source by selecting "Type a new list" from the "Select recipients" options. Click "Create" to make a simple list of recipients.

4. Fill in the information for each recipient that you want to have available for the mail merge. You can add titles, company names, addresses and more. Title and save the list when you are finished. The list you created can be found in a folder titled "My Data Sources."

5. Finish creating your letter for the mail merge, and send.

Tips & Warnings

• You can remove people from the current mailing by deselecting their names on the mail merge recipients list you set up. This does not remove them from the list; you will have their contact information for future mailings.

• Tables that you create in Word 2003 can be selected for use as mail merge data sources. Just find the filename for the table while in the "Mail Merge" task pane, and click the "Open" button.

• If you are creating a data source using Excel or Access, make sure that each category of information is as limited as possible. For example, rather than having a single address column, have four columns: street address, city, state and zip code. This gives you greater control when sorting the data.