How to work with your mailing list using MS Excel

The purpose of this help document is to provide general guidelines for grooming and printing a mailing list received in MS Excel (.xls) file format. The actual mail merge and output to your printer occurs in MS Word. So for this to work correctly, you need MS Excel and MS Word loaded on your computer.

Groom your list

When you groom, you are cleaning and purging unwanted data from your list. To do this, you need to sort your data a couple of different times.

To sort, follow the procedure below which was taken directly from MS Excel help index searching on “sort” as a topic:

Sort rows based on the contents of two or more columns

For best results, the list you sort should have column labels.

1. Click a cell in the list you want to sort.

2. On the Data menu, click Sort.

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3. In the Sort by and Then by boxes, click the columns you want to sort.

If you need to sort by more than three columns, sort by the least important columns first. For example, if your list contains employee information and you need to organize it by Department, Title, Last Name, and First Name, sort the list twice. First, click First Name in the Sort by box and sort the list. Second, click Department in the Sort by box, click Title in the first Then by box, and click Last Name in the second Then by box, and sort the list.

4. Select any other sort options you want, and then click OK.

Repeat steps 2 through 4 if needed, using the next most important columns.

Notes

• If the column you specify in the Sort by box has duplicate items, you can sort the values further by specifying another column in the first Then by box. If there are duplicate items in the second column, you can specify a third column to sort by in the second Then by box.
• When you sort rows that are part of a worksheet outline, Microsoft Excel sorts the highest-level groups (level 1) so that the detail rows or columns stay together, even if the detail rows or columns are hidden.

You should check your mailing list for duplicate records. This is down at least with two separate sorts. The first sort should be on LAST names, then CITY. After you get your results you will need to scroll down line by line and check for duplicate last names.

Next sort on CITY and then ADDRESS. Again scroll down  to try to find duplicates. If you do, just delete one of them. After your list is groomed,  you are ready merge your data in a Word document.

The following help information was taken directly from MS Excel’s help index, using “mail” as a search topic.

Use Microsoft Excel data as a mailing list in Word

You can use this procedure to create form letters, mailing labels, and other merged documents by merging a list of data with a Word document. You must create the list before you perform this procedure. The list must include column labels and contain no blank rows. For information about creating a list, click .

1. Save and close the workbook that contains the list you want to merge with a document in Word.
2. Switch to Microsoft Word.
3. Open the Word main document that contains the standard text for the form letter or other document you want to merge with the list.

If you're starting a new document or printing mailing labels or envelopes, click New to open a new blank document.

4. On the Tools menu in Word, click Mail Merge.
5. Click Create, and select the type of document.
6. Click Get Data, and then click Open Data Source.
7. In the Open Data Source dialog box, open the folder that contains your Microsoft Excel workbook.
8. In the Files of type box, click MS Excel Worksheets (*.xls).
9. Double-click the workbook that contains your data.
10. In the Microsoft Excel dialog box, select the named range, or type the cell references that identify the data you want to use, and then click OK.
11. When Word displays a message, click Edit Main Document or Set Up Main Document.
12. If you're creating a form letter, use the Insert Merge Field list on the Mail Merge toolbar to insert merge fields within the standard text. When you finish, click Mail Merge Helper on the Mail Merge toolbar.

If you're printing address labels or envelopes, select the printer and the size of address labels or envelopes. Then insert the merge fields in the Create Labels or Envelope Address dialog box.

13. In the Mail Merge Helper dialog box, click Merge, and then select the options you want.

Tips

• For more information about creating merged documents in Word, use the Office Assistant or Help index in Word to search for "mail merge."
• To display only the rows of data you want to merge before you select the list in Word, you can first filter the list in Microsoft Excel. When you select a filtered list as a data source in Word, select _FilterDatabase in the Microsoft Excel dialog box.

Where to go from here

If you get stuck or would like further help, simply go into Excel or Word, click Help in the tool bar, and type in a word into the help index field to get some helpful information. Some key words related to this topic would be: label, sort, mail, and merge.

Copy and paste the following info into excel to practice with. Once you are VERY comfortable with using it this way, I would recommend getting the information in an excel file.