Since I’m trying to figure this out again… I think I do this every year (that we send Christmas cards), I’m going to just write it out for myself, and for anyone else that it may help. (Update: I never actually published this last year when I wrote it, and I had to figure it out again this year when I came to search my blog and couldn’t find my post… so I’m finishing it in 2019 so I’ll have it for our 2020 cards)
We have our Address List Master in Google Drive so that we always have it with us wherever we go, and we can update it as we need to.
First, I made all my updates, highlighting records for people I knew had moved, so we could follow up with them, removing people who had passed away in the last year, or people whose cards were returned to us with no forwarding address, and adding any new friends we had made throughout the year. After I got my Google Drive list updated, I copied it into a new Excel document and saved it with this year’s name.
Here is where I always run into trouble… I got into Word and cannot figure out how to update my data source. I love data, and I love databases, and it seems like this should be something simple, but I cannot figure it out… maybe… if I used the same file name, then I could just go into the same Word document and just refresh the data… but I am going the wizard route… yet again. If I get it figured out before next year, I’ll update this. But… Christmas is only 4 days away and we need to get these cards out.
Sorry if you get one from us and it’s late… we tried.
Open Word
Go to Mailing
Go to Start Mail Merge – then select Step-by-Step Mail Merge Wizard
You’ll see options open on the right side of the page, click the Labels option button then click on Next: Starting Document
Click on Label Options
A window will pop open and you’ll choose your Label vendor and Product number (we use Avery #18660) then click OK then click Next: Select recipients
Click on Browse, then
Double click on your Excel list that you just created/updated then click OK, it should show you a preview of your address list, follow the wizard to confirm.
Click Next: Arrange your labels, click on Address block, then click on Match Fields, you’ll want to make any updates here to make sure your sample looks ok. In my list I have first and last name in one column, so I make sure the First Name references my Name field and the Last Name doesn’t reference my data at all or it prints the entire name twice. Once your updates are made, Click OK. Then click the Update all labels button before clicking on Next: Preview your labels, then click on Next: Complete the merge
Select Next: Preview your labels, and then Next: Complete the merge.
If everything looks good, you can choose to Print, but I choose the Edit individual labels option because we almost always have a few more records we are waiting to get addresses back on, but we don’t want to wait to print the rest. We click Merge, then All and it writes every address to the Word document so you can make any updates before you print. I save my document to my desktop then when I am ready I load my labels into my printer and print them. (Make sure you are loading your paper the right way, mine has to be print side down in the tray).
I hope this helps you! And I am sure it will help me next year when I’m trying to figure this out again!
Merry Christmas!
You must be logged in to post a comment.