LESSON 3

Advanced Word
Processing Skills
• Mail merge and label generation
• Integrating images and external
materials
At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

1. use some advanced capabilities of Microsoft Word

commonly used to increase productivity and efficiency;

2. effectively use these features to help improve the

productivity of an organization through maximizing the
potential of MS Word;

3. create form letters or documents for distribution to various

recipients;

4. create labels and envelops for distribution; and

5. create media-rich documents for printing or publishing.

 Two Components of Mail Merge:

1. Form Document
The document that contains the main body
of the message we want to convey or send.

2. List or Data File

This is where the individual information or
data that needs to be plugged in (merged) to
our form document is placed and maintained.
 Label Generation
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.
 Integrating Images and
External Materials
Kinds of Materials:
1. Pictures. Generally, these are electronic or digital
pictures or photographs you have saved in any local
storage device.
2. Clip Art. This is generally a .GIF type; line art
drawings or images used as generic representation
for ideas and objects that you might want to integrate
in your document.
3. Shapes. These are printable objects or materials that
you can integrate in your document to enhance its
appearance or to allow you to have some tools to use
for composing and representing ideas or messages.
4. Smart Art. Generally, these are predefined
sets of different shapes grouped together to
form ideas that are organizational or
structural in nature.
5. Chart. Another type of material that you can
integrate in your Word document that allows
you to represent data characteristics and
trends.
6. Screenshot. Sometimes, creating reports or
manuals for training or procedure will require
the integration of a more realistic image of
what you are discussing on your report or
manual.
 Pictures extension files
JPG - this is pronounced as “jay-peg” and is
the shortcut form for .jpeg Joint
Photographic Experts Group.
.GIF – stands for Graphics Interchange
Format. This type of image file is capable
of displaying transparencies. Therefore, it
is good for blending with other materials or
elements in a document, it is also capable
of displaying simple animation.
.PNG – pronounced as “ping”, it stands for
Portable Network Graphics. It was built around
the capabilities of .GIF. Its development was
basically for the purpose of transporting images
on the internet at faster rates. It is also good with
transparencies, but unlike .GIF it does not
support animation.
 Image Placement
1. In Line with Text- this is the default setting for images
that are inserted or integrated in documents. It treats
your image like a text font with the bottom side totally
aligned with the text line. These setting is usually used
when you need to place your image at the beginning of
a paragraph. When placed between texts in a
paragraph or sentence, it distorts the overall
appearance and arrangements of the text in the
paragraph because it will take up the space it needs
vertically pushing whole lines of texts upward.
Sample of In Line with Text
 Image Placement
2. Square – this setting allows the image
you inserted to be placed anywhere
within the paragraph with the text going
around the image in a square pattern like
a frame.
Sample Square setting
 Image Placement
3. Tight- this is almost the same as the
Square setting, but the text “hugs” or
conforms to the general shape of the
image. This allows you to get a more a
more creative effect on your document.
This setting can mostly be achieved if you
are using an image that supports
transparency like a .GIF or .PNG file.
Sample Tight setting
 Image Placement
4. Through- this setting allows the text on
your document to flow even tighter, taking
the contours and shape of the image.
Again, this can be best used with a .GIF or
.PNG of image.
Sample Through setting
 Image Placement
5. Top and Bottom- this setting pushes the
texts away vertically to the top and/or the
bottom of the image so that the image
occupies a whole text line on its own.
Sample Top and Bottom setting
 Image Placement
6. Behind Text-this allows your image to be
dragged and placed anywhere on your
document but with all the texts floating in
front of it. It effectively makes your image
look like a background.
Sample Behind Text setting
 Image Placement
7. In Front of Text-this setting allows your
image to be placed right on top of the text
as if your image was dropped on it. That
means whatever part of the text you
placed the image on, it will covered by the
image. In our example, notice the
difference between using a .PNG file with
a transparency effect, and a JPG file.
Sample In Front of Text setting
 Skill Exploration 3.2
Integrating Images and External Materials
Scenario: You were tasked to create and
send out information campaign letter to the
sponsors of an environmental advocacy
foundation. The letter contains images
related to a solar campaign and charts that
will show the progress of the movement.
 In our activity we will use the files that
we are going to download from the
following links or URLs and save
them on your desktop

Solar.jpg – http://1drv.ms/1mvv5Kg
Joe.png - http://1drv.ms/1mvvbl7
Sample letter.doc – http://1drv.ms/1mvvKLP