Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Use Excel and Word's Mail Merge to Print Mailing Labels

I have moved all my blogs to my new website: https://helpfulofficetips.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/use-excel-and-words-mail-merge-to-print-mailing-labels/ From now on, all updates will be at the new site, and all links will take you directly to that site.  Please check it out!

First, create a basic mailing list in Excel of your friends and family.  You must include the headers for each column.  Here is an example:

Last First Address City ST Zip
Bennet Elizabeth 123 Pier Street Santa Monica CA 90401
Bennet Jane 2345 Colorado Avenue Santa Monica CA 90401
Bingley Charles 900 Wilshire Boulevard Westwood CA 90024
Darcy Fitzwilliam 601 N. Rodeo Drive Beverly Hills CA 90210






Save it and name it Mailing Labels.

Now open a new Word document  In the Mailings tab, click Start Mail Merge and select Labels. Have your box of labels handy and find the code.  Avery 5160 is the norm - that's the one with 30 labels per sheet.

To see your labels outlines, go to the Table Tools>Design tab that appeared in Word.  Click the Table Tools tab which appeared and select View Gridlines.

   
Now enter your "Merge Fields."  Put your cursor in the label.  Still on the Mailings tab, in the Write & Insert Fields section, select Insert Merge Field.  Click for the pull-down menu.  Select the merge fields and add the appropriate spacing.  (You can also add the spaces in later.)

<<First>> space <Last>>
<<Address>>
<<City>> comma space <<ST>> space space <<Zip>>

Your labels will look like this


Click Mailings tab>Write & Insert Fields section>Update Labels.


Now your labels will look like this:


To see your friends’ names, click Mailings tab>Preview Results section>Preview Results

You may adjust font, size, and spacing, use the first label only, then click Update Labels and your formatting will be copied to all labels.


Print one label on regular paper first, so you don’t waste the labels.  Most printers will have a little graphic that explains which side up or down, top or bottom.

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