How Do I Auto Populate a Word Document?

By Foye Robinson

Updated September 28, 2017

Auto populate Word.
i pages of text image by blaQ from Fotolia.com

You can auto populate a document by letting Word replace the fields on your page with content from another document or program. If you’re working on a letter, label or envelope and want to place data you created in Excel, Access or Word into specific areas of your page, Word’s mail merge can help. The mail merge wizard will walk you through the setup, allowing you to insert fields where you want them to go, and auto populate the fields once the merge is complete.

Open the letter, label or document you want to auto populate in Microsoft Word.

Select “Tools,” “Letters and Mailings” and “Mail Merge.” Choose the type of document you want to populate--a letter, envelope, label--from the “Mail Merge” task pane. Click on “Next.”

Choose “Use the current document” and click on “Next.”

Choose “Use an existing list” and click on “Browse” to find the Word, Access or Excel file that will be used to auto populate your document.

Select the recipients you want to include from the “Mail Merge Recipients” window. Then click on “OK” and “Next.”

Highlight the first line of text (in your document), which will be populated, then click on “More items.” Find the matching field for the line of text and double-click it. The field from the "Insert Merge Field" dialog box will replace the highlighted text on your page. Click on “Close.”

Select the second line of text (from your document) and click on “More.” Again, double-click the matching field to insert it, and click on “Close.” Repeat this step until all the fields you need are added, then click on "Next."

Check the contents of your merged documents by clicking on the left and right arrows under “Preview your letters.”

Click on “Next: Complete the merge” and select “Edit individual letters” to load the merged fields on your page. Press “OK” on the “Merge to New Document” dialog box to auto populate your Word document.

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