There are two main components to doing a mail merge with data from one of our database programs.

  • You must have a mail merge document set up in Microsoft Word ( consult Microsoft Word's Help Menu for help setting up your merge document )
  • You must have a database that contains the information that you wish to merge into the Word document. This is what our software can export from a database file. In order create a data file for Word from your database program, you will need to create an export file.

How to Create an Export file:

  1. Open the database file that contains the data you wish to merge with your Word form letter. Do this by choosing the File menu and then selecting Open. Here, select the file you want to use in the Open File dialog by double-clicking on it.
  2. Once the database file is open and is displaying in your program,go to the File menu and select Export.
  3. Set the Export Mode to All Records (to add all the records from your list file) and then click the Add>> to add different data fields to the exported file. This will let you add specific data fields to your export by clicking on a data field you wish to add to your export from the left-hand box to highlight it and then clicking the Add>> button to add that single field to the export.
  4. Repeat step 3 for any other data fields you want to add. If you wish to simply add all the fields at once, click the Add All>> button and all the fields will be exported automatically. When you are done choosing fields to export, click OK.
  5. The Save As dialog will appear. Choose Desktop for the folder location to save to in the top drop-down listing and leave the file name as the default ExpFile.csv. Click Save. This will export the data file to your Windows Desktop as the icon ExpFile.
  6. Now open Microsoft Word and then open your Word Document for your mail merge. You have your data exported into a file called ExpFile.csv which you will use to import your mail data.
  7. In Word, go to the Tools menu, select Mail Merge, then Get Data, and then Open Data Source.
  8. In the box that says Look In, browse to your Windows Desktop.
  9. Set the Files of Type drop-down to All files and you should see ExpFile.csv as an icon to select in the main window.
  10. Double-click ExpFile.csv, then click Merge.

These instructions for Word were specifically written for Microsoft Word 2000. Other versions of Microsoft Word may have different commands to accomplish a mail merge. For help with making a mail merge document, or performing the actual mail merge from the ExpFile.csv generated from our database program, consult the Microsoft Word Help, the Microsoft Office Assistant, or the Microsoft Support Knowledgebase on the web.