A.

Mail Merge
          One of the important reasons in using computers per se is its ability to do recurring tasks
automatically. But this ability has to be honed by learning the characteristics and features of the
software you use with your computer. After all, no matter how good or advance your computer
and software may be, it can only be as good as the person using it.
          In this particular part of our lesson, we will learn one of the most powerful and commonly
used features of Microsoft Word called Mail Merge. As the name suggests, this feature allows
you to create documents and combine or merge them with another document or data file. It is
commonly used when sending out advertising materials to various recipients.
           The simplest solution for the scenario above is to create a document and just copy and
paste it several times then just replaces the details depending on whom you send it to. But
what if you have hundreds or thousands of recipients? Would not that take too many hours?
What if you have a small database of information where you can automatically generate those
letters?

Two Components of Mail Merge

1. Form Document
          The first component of our mail merged document is the form document. It is generally
the document that contains the main body of the message we want to convey or send. The
main body of the message is the part of the form document that remains the same no matter
whom you send it to from among your list.
           Also included in the form document is what we call place holders, also referred to as data
fields or merge fields. This marks the position on your form document where individual data or
information will be inserted. From our sample document, the place holders are denoted or
marked by the text with double-headed arrows (<<>>) on each side and with a gray
background. On a printed standard form, this will be the underlined spaces that you will see
and use as a guide to where you need to write the information that you need to fill out. In its
simplest form, a form document is literally a “form” that you fill out with individual information.
A common example of a form document is your regular tax form or application form.

2. List or Data File

           The second component of our mail merged document is the list or data file. This is where
the individual information or data that needs to be plugged in (merged) to the form document
is placed and maintained. One of the best things about the mail merge feature is that it allows
data file to be created from within the Microsoft Word application itself, or it gets data from a
file created in Microsoft Excel or other data formats. In this way, fields that needed to be filled
up on the form document can easily be maintained without accidentally altering the form or
main document. You can also easily add, remove, modify, or extract your data more efficiently
by using other data management applications like Excel or Access and import them in Word
during the mail merge process.
B. Label Generation

            Included in the mail merge feature on Microsoft Word is the Label Generator. It just
makes sense that after you print out your form letters, you will need to send it to individual
recipients in an envelope with the matching address printed directly on the envelope or on a
mailing label to stick on. By using virtually the same process as a standard mail merge,
Microsoft Word will print individual addresses to a standard form that it has already pre-
formatted. Simply put, it creates a blank form document that simulates either a blank label or
envelope of pre-defined size and will use the data file that you selected to print the
information, typically individual addresses. So even in generating labels, the two essential
components of creating a merged document are present: the form document and the data file.
Only in this case, you did not have to type or create the form document yourself because it was
already created and pre-formatted in Microsoft Word. All you need to do is select the correct or
appropriate size for the label or envelope and select the data file that contains the addresses
(data) to be printed. You can also preview your merged labels before printing if you want to.

Note: Supplementary Materials such as slide decks and video lessons are uploaded in Google
classroom provided by the teacher. The teacher may also disseminate the Supplementary
Materials through other online platforms for broader accessibility.