Adding Merge Fields to a Document

When you are creating your main mail merge document, you use merge fields to indicate where Word should insert information it extracts from your data source. Once you have started the mail merge process (as described in the previous tip), you can easily insert the appropriate merge fields. Again, how you do this depends on your version of Word.

There are two ways you can choose to insert merge fields. The first is to use the same Mail Merge pane you used for the Mail Merge Wizard. Click on the More Items link to see which merge fields are available.

The other way to insert merge fields is to use the tools in the Write & Insert Fields group on the Mailings tab of the ribbon. In particular, use the Merge Fields tool, which lists each of the fields available for use in the document.

The best way to learn how to use merge fields is by experimenting. Try using different fields and see what happens. You can learn quite a bit this way, and you will be happier with the resulting merged documents.