Mail Merge for Dummies: Creating Address

Labels using Word and Excel 2010

Doing a mail merge using MS Office 2010 may get you confused or stuck, not because it is
difficult or impossible to do, but because there are specific steps you need to follow. Missing a
step, or doing something out of order may give you unwanted results.
I would like to help you out and give you step by step instructions, complete with images, on
how to do a mail merge and create mailing labels using Microsoft Excel and Word 2010. I will
also go over how to add a return address to your labels.

1. After you hit OK, click on Select Recipients and then select Use Existing List. We are going to use
that list I mentioned in step 1.

2. Point to the location where the excel spreadsheet is located. As you can see, my list is on a
desktop in a folder called Addresses. Select your spreadsheet and click on Open.

3. Select the appropriate Table in my example it is the one called 3000$. If you did not rename
your table it is probably just called Sheet1$ so select that one. Please check the check mark
next to the first row of data that contains column headers. You should have column headers
otherwise you will only see A, B, C, etc. and it will be very difficult for you to figure out which
column is the first name and which one is the zip code. Once you make the table selection and
you check the box, click on OK.
4. After you click OK, your Word 2010 document should look like this. You should see each
separate label.

5. There are two ways of adding the addresses to our labels:
a. The first one is to click on the Address Block

i) When you select the Address Block, you need to make sure the format is what you want
and that all the fields you want are included. In the example below we select the format
with the middle initial, but when we scroll down to record 4, for Lisa, we notice that her
apartment number is not listed. In order to include it, we need to manually match fields.
So if you are in similar situation, go ahead and click on Match Fields.

ii) After looking at Address 2 on the left, I noticed that (not matched) is currently selected. I
will click on the arrow pointing down and select my AddressLine2 field from my Excel
sheet to make sure the apartment number is going to be included in the address. After
that I click OK.

iii) Now double check that the format with middle initial is still selected, make sure the
apartment number is showing for my record for Lisa all looks good click OK.

iv) Now you can see Address Block on my first label. Time to click on Update Labels. On my
window all you see is a little icon that, when you point to it, says Update Labels. If your
Word 2010 window is maximized you will see the icon with the words Update Labels.
Go ahead and click on it.

v) This is what it should look like after updating labels.

vi) Alright, its time to click on Finish & Merge! But before you print the documents, click on
Edit Individual Documents.

vii) Make sure All is selected and click OK. This will make sure all of your records from the
spreadsheet are being added to the mail merge.

viii) Double check one more time to make sure everything looks good. I am going to look at
record 4 and make sure Lisas apartment number shows up. I want to point out that my
document has 215 pages for my 3000 addresses. Another thing I want to point out in the
second image is that my page 2 is different so it is not Page 1 repeating 214 times. You
are ready to print your labels!
b. The second way to insert the fields is to do it manually by selecting Insert Merge Field and
then clicking on each field.
i) When inserting the fields manually, do not forget about inserting the spaces, periods and
commas.

ii) You can also format the fields. In my example I made them centered and bold. You can
also do that with the address block as in the previous example.
iii) Once you are happy with what the label looks like, its time to click on the Update Labels
button. On my window all you see is a little icon that, when you point to it, says Update
Labels. If your Word 2010 window is maximized you will see the icon with the words
Update Labels. Go ahead and click on it.
iv) Once they are updated, they should look something like this.

Now lets click on Finish & Merge. Before you print the documents, click on Edit Individual
Documents.
ii. Make sure all records are selected and click OK.
ouble check your results to make sure extra fields are included and then you are ready to print!

But wait! What if you want to include a return address on a postcard or a big shipping label? How do
you do that?
Return Address Labels
6. Go back to step 4 to open up the Labels Option window. Select the label you want. In this
example I am going to continue using Avery US Letter for Label vendor and then select 8577
Postcard for the big label. Basically, if you want to include a return address you need to have
enough space on the label thats why I am selecting a postcard I know it will have enough
space for me to include the return address.

7. Type in your address on the first label/postcard. You can format it however you want it (make it
bold, change the font, etc.). Then select it and click CTRL-C to copy it. Hit the Tab key to move to
the second label and hit CTRL-V to paste it. Do that for the entire first page of labels. In my
example I only have 4 labels per page so I will have to do that 4 times. This is creating a label
template that then will be used to create the mail merge.
If you want, you can also add an image to each label or some other information. Just remember
to copy and paste it for each label on the first page.
8. Now that we have the label template ready, click on Select Recipients and then Use Existing List.

9. Pick the excel spreadsheet with all your addresses.
10. Just like earlier, select the table, check the box next to First row of data that contains column
headers, and then click OK.
11. Now you have two options to ad the addresses to your labels: either use the address block or
insert individual merge fields manually, just like in step 10.
12. This time around I am going to use address block. I will make sure all my fields are matched and
then click on OK.
13. Once I see the address block on my first label, I will select it and using my indent markers on the
ruler I will move it to the position I want the address to appear.
14. Once I have my address block in the position I like, its time to update all the labels. Go ahead
and click on the icon for Update Labels.
15. The address block should appear on the rest of the labels.
16. We are almost done. All we need to do is make sure all our records in the excel spreadsheet will
be transferred for the mail merge. To do that, click on Finish & Merge and select Edit Individual
Documents.
17. Make sure All is selected, then click OK.
18. It may take a few seconds but you should be able to see the document being created. Since I am
using bigger labels/postcards I have 750 pages created for my 3000 names (which makes sense
right? 3000 / 4 = 750). Make sure the addresses appear the way you want them. In my example I
will be checking record 4 for Lisa to make sure her apartment number is showing. You can also
go to the second page to make sure the new page starts with a different name.