Microsoft Word 2003

Mail Merge: Creating an Email Merge

Mail Merge to email combines the personalization of form letters with the easy delivery of email. For example, advisors may send a personalized email to all of their advisees containing information regarding the date of their next visit. This email merge will only work on those computers set up with Microsoft Outlook.

These instructions assume that you have an understanding of the Word Mail Merge process. If you need more information, refer to Mail Merge Wizard: An Overview.

The starting document contains the text for the email message with field references to the data document.

NOTE: If your starting document includes active hyperlinks and you want them to remain active in the email message, you should type the complete URL, rather than link representative text (e.g., http://www.uwec.edu rather than UW-Eau Claire.) This will ensure that, regardless of the email format, the link will be preserved once the starting document is merged to email.

Open a blank Word document
From the Tools menu, select Letters and Mailings » Mail Merge...
The Mail Merge task pane appears.
Under Select document type, select E-mail messages
Click NEXT: STARTING DOCUMENT
Under Select starting document, select Use the current document
Click NEXT: SELECT RECIPIENTS
Under Select recipients, select Use an existing list
To retrieve an existing recipient list,
1. Under Use an existing list, click BROWSE...
  The Select Data Source dialog box appears.
2. From the Look in pull-down list, locate and select the file you will use for your list
3. Click OPEN
  The Mail Merge Recipients dialog box appears.
Select which recipient(s) you want to include in your mail merge
NOTE: To edit the recipient information, refer to Working with the Recipients List.
Click OK
Click NEXT: WRITE YOUR E-MAIL MESSAGE
If you have not already done so, in your document, type your message
When finished, click NEXT: PREVIEW YOUR E-MAIL MESSAGES
A preview of your first recipient appears.
NOTE: For more information on editing the recipient information, refer to Working with the Recipients List.
HINT: To remove a recipient from the mail merge, under Make changes, click EXCLUDE THIS RECIPIENT.
Click NEXT: COMPLETE THE MERGE
Under Merge, click ELECTRONIC MAIL...
The Merge to E-mail dialog box appears.
From the To pull-down list, select the field that contains the email addresses
In the Subject line text box, type a subject
From the Mail format pull-down list, select the desired format for your message
NOTE: To avoid being alerted on every record regarding an Outlook security measure, select HTML.
Under Send records, select which record(s) you want to include: All or Current Record
OR
To select only certain records, type in the appropriate values in the From and To text boxes
Click OK
The email messages are now sent to your recipient(s).