Word

Word
Project 5
Generating Form Letters, Mailing Labels and Envelopes

Form Letters

The basic content of a group of form letters is similar; however, items such as name, address, city, state, and zip code change from one letter to the next.

Personalized to the addressee

2 Kinds of Form Letters

Business form letters - announcements of sales to customers or explanation of company benefits

Personal form letters - letters of application for a job or invitation to participate in a sweepstakes

Envelopes must be addressed or mailing labels printed after letters are generated

Generating Form Letters
(2 Step Process)

1. Create a Main Document - form letter (constant source of information)

2. Create a data source - table or database (changing source of information)

Note: Main Document and Data Source are merged together into individual letters

Document Preparation Steps
Project 5

1. Create letterhead

2. Identify main document as form letter

3. Create data source

4. Create main document

5. Merge and print form letters

6. Create and print mailing labels

7. Create and print envelopes

Creating Data Source

Data source - is a Word table

Header row - 1st row of data source

Data row - each row below the header row

Data field - each column in data source

Field name - unique name (40 char max) begin with letter no spaces allowed

Word provides a list of 13 commonly used field names (title, first and last names, address, telephone, etc)

fields can be in any order in data source

Editing Records in Data Source

Data Form dialog box - used to add, change, or delete data records

Add record - click Add New button

Change record - use Find Button to locate record or the navigation buttons on bottom of box

Delete record - click Delete button

Note: can add, change, and delete records when viewing the source in table form

Creating Main Document (Form Letter)

Main Document - uses block style letter format

current date displays in left corner

paragraphs left-aligned

Common elements Business letter - date line, inside address, message, complimentary close, signature block

Inserting Merge Fields

Merge fields - created by clicking the Insert Merge Field button on Mail Merge toolbar

merge field - combine the main document with contents of the data source

Word surrounds merge field names with chevrons

Chevrons mark the beginning and ending of a merge field

2 Kinds of IF Fields

1. If…Then - if a condition is true perform an action

2. If…Then…Else - if a condition is true perform an action; else perform a different action if false

Parts of If field

condition - phrase that appears after the word If (expression, comparison operator, expression)

Expression - merge field, number, string of characters, math formula

Word surrounds a string of characters with (")

null expression - ("")

Comparison Operators - equal(=), not equal(< >), less than(<), greater than(>), less than or equal to(<=), greater than or equal to(>=)

If field example

If VIPClub = "Y" "25" "10"

Condition True Text False Text

Displaying Field Codes

Field results - value of If field displays in document window by default (depending on condition)

Field code - If field itself (ALT+F9)

default mode is field codes off

whether field codes on or off on screen has no effect on print merge process

users turn field codes on to verify their accuracy

Merging Documents
Printing the Letters

Address lines suppress blanks (second address line)

Merge to New Document button - used to send merged letters to a file instead of the printer

Instead of merging and printing all records in data source, you can choose which records merged based on a condition

Addressing and Printing Mailing Labels

Mailing Labels - use same data source as Form Letters

format and contents same as inside address

POSTNET delivery-point bar code -zip code and first street address

placed above each address

speeds up delivery

Computer Assignment 2

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