How to Turn an Address Book Into Labels
A mail merge is very helpful if you want to turn your address book into mailing labels. To create a mail merge, you set up a main document--in this case, mailing labels--with a data source--an address book. Microsoft Word offers a mail merge feature with several data source options. You can use addresses from a spreadsheet or Microsoft Outlook's address book to create labels in Word. Using Word's mail merge capabilities, you can create labels for all of your contacts or just a few of your contacts.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Open Microsoft Word.
-
2
Click on the "Tools" menu, then "Letters and Mailings, followed by "Mail Merge Wizard" if you are using Microsoft Word 2002. Go to "Tools," "Letters and Mailings" and "Mail Merge" if you are using Word 2003. If you are using 2007 or later versions of Word, click on "Mailings," then "Start Mail Merge" followed by "Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard."
-
-
3
Click "Labels" under "Select document type" and then click "Next: Starting Document."
-
4
Choose "Change document layout" under "Select starting document." You will see "Label options" once you select to change the document. Click on "Label options" to bring up the dialog box. Select the type of printer you have, the type of labels and the product number for your labels and then click "OK."
-
5
Click "Next: Select Recipients" to move on to the next step of the merge process.
-
6
Select the data source that holds the addresses you want to turn into labels. You can choose to use an existing list (Excel), select from Outlook contacts or type a new list.
-
7
Click "Choose Contacts Folder" to use contacts from Outlook. Find the correct folder once the "Select Contact Folder List" comes up and click "OK." Choose the list you want and click "OK" again. Select the recipients you want to create labels for by adding or removing the check mark next to their name.
-
8
Format your labels by choosing the areas you want to appear on the label from the Mail Merge task pane. Word automatically gives you the options of "Address block," "Greeting line" and "Electronic postage." Click on the option you want to format and that dialog box will come up with formatting options. If you want to add a field to your label that isn't show, select "More items."
-
9
Click "Update all labels" to format all the labels the same way.
-
10
Choose "Next: Preview your labels" to view how your merged data will appear.
-
11
Verify that "Complete the merge" is displayed in the Mail Merge window. You can choose to merge your labels directly to the printer or to a document. Choose print to merge them to the printer and click "OK." Select "Edit individual labels" and click "OK" to merge the labels to a document.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
To merge data from an address book other than Outlook, export the address book to a spreadsheet format first. Then, instead of choosing Outlook contacts as a data source, choose the existing list option. Browse to find the data source, then choose the addresses you want to use when the "Mail Merge Recipients" box comes up.
References
- Photo Credit box image by Pefkos from Fotolia.com
