You may use Microsoft Excel to neatly organize a mailing list. However, if you want to print mailing labels, you need to create them from your Excel list in Word using mail merge. Here’s how.
Step One: Prepare your mailing list
If you have already created a mailing list in Excel, you can safely skip this test. If you still haven’t created the list despite Excel’s lack of labeling functionality, we strongly recommend using Excel as it is better for organizing and maintaining data than using Excel. Use a Word table.
The first thing you need to do is create a column header that corresponds to the data going into each column. Place these headings in the first row of each column.
Which headers you include depends on the information you want to use in the shipping labels. Titles are always nice, but it’s important to know what title a person is using before creating the labels. If your listing is for businesses and not individuals, you can omit the “First Name” and “Last Name” headings and just include “Company Name.” To better illustrate the steps, we’ll use a personal mailing list in this example. Our list includes the following headings:
- first name
- Surname
- address
- Ville
- budget
- code postal
This is the standard information found on shipping labels. You can even put pictures in the shipping labels if you want, but that step will be done later in Word.
RELATIONSHIP : How to create and print labels in Word
After you create the headers, you can enter the data. When you’re done, your list should look like this:
Go ahead, save your list, and let’s move on to Microsoft Word.
Second step: create labels in Word format
Open a blank Word document. Then go to the “Mailings” tab and select “Start mail merge”.
From the drop-down menu that appears, select Labels.
The Annotation Options window appears. Here you can select your label brand and product number. When you’re done, click OK.
Your label outlines will now appear in Word.
note : If you don’t see your label outlines, go to Design > Borders and select “Show Grid Lines”.
Step three: Connect your worksheet with Word labels
Before you can transfer data from Excel to your labels in Word, you need to link the two. On the Word document’s Mailings tab, select Select Recipients.
A drop-down menu will appear. Choose Use Existing List.
Windows File Explorer will appear. Use it to find and select your mailing list file. Once the file is selected, click “Open”.
The Select Table window appears. If your workbook contains multiple sheets, they will appear here. Select the one that has your list. Make sure the First Row of Data Contains Column Headers option is selected if it isn’t already, then click OK.
Your labels are now linked to your worksheet.
Step 4: Add merge fields to labels
Now it’s time to add your merge fields to Word’s labels. Select the first label, go to the Mailings tab, and then click Address Blocking.
In the Insert Address Block window that appears, click the Match Fields button.
The Match Fields window appears. In the Required for Address Blocking group, make sure each setting matches the column in your workbook. For example, First Name must match First Name, etc. Once you have confirmed that everything is configured correctly, click OK.
In the Insert Address Block window, check the preview to make sure everything looks correct, and then click OK.
> will now appear on your first label.
Return to the Mailings tab, then click Update Labels.
If selected, > must appear on every label.
Now you can perform the mail merge.
Step Five: Perform Mail Merge
Now let’s see how the magic happens. In the “Mailings” tab, click on “Finish & Merge”.
Select “Edit individual documents” from the drop-down menu that appears.
The Merge into New Document window appears. Select All, then click OK.
Your list from Excel will now be merged with the labels in Word.
All you have to do is print your labels and send your mail!
https://www.howtogeek.com/413665/how-to-create-mailing-labels-in-word-from-an-excel-list/