How to Perform a Mail Merge in Office 2016

After all the codes are inserted in the main document, it’s time to perform the merge. There are three ways to go about this in Word 2016: you can merge to a new document, and then print that document as a separate step after examining the merge results, you can merge directly to your printer, or you can send email messages.

Which is better? It depends. How sure are you that you’ve set up the merge correctly? You should merge to a new document the first time you run a new merge to make sure that it works the way you intended. But if you are running the same merge repeatedly (such as sending out the same form letters every month to the same people), it’s fine to merge directly to the printer.

You can preview the merge results without having to create a whole new document. Just choose Mailings→Preview Results. Then use the arrow buttons in the Preview Results group to move between results pages.

Merge to a new document

To merge to a new document, follow these steps:

1. On the Mailings tab, click Finish & Merge. A menu opens.

2. Click Edit Individual Documents.

   

   Choose to edit individual documents.

3. (Optional) If you want to include only a certain range of records, specify that range. Otherwise leave All selected.

4. Click OK. The new document is created.

   

   Choose a range of records.

5. Print and save the new document as you would any document, and then close it.

6. Save your merge main document for later reuse if desired.

Merge to a printer

To merge to a printer, follow these steps:

1. On the Mailings tab, click Finish & Merge. A menu opens.

2. Click Print Documents.

   

   Choose to merge to a printer.

3. (Optional) If you want to include only a certain range of records, specify that range. Otherwise leave All selected.

4. Click OK.

   

   Choose a range of records.

5. In the Print dialog box, specify any print options as needed.

6. Click OK.

   

   Choose printing options and complete the printing.

Send merged email messages

To merge to a printer, follow these steps:

1. On the Mailings tab, click Finish & Merge. A menu opens.

2. Click Send Email Messages.

   

   Choose Send Email Messages.

3. Open the To: drop-down list and select the field that contains the recipients’ email addresses. This field might or might not have been inserted in the message.

4. In the Subject line box, type the desired message subject.

5. (Optional) If you want to include only a certain range of records, specify that range. Otherwise leave All selected.

6. Click OK. The messages are sent using your default email application (probably Microsoft Outlook).

   

   Specify email sending options.