Comments on: How to mail merge from Excel to Word

Mail Merge from Excel to Word can be a real time-saver when it comes to sending large mailings. This tutorial provides an overview of the main features and explains how to do a mail merge from Excel to Word step-by-step. Continue reading →

Comments page 5. Total comments: 151

  1. Hi,

    I'm trying to mail merge two different values to one checkbox so that if the values 1 or 3 is in excel it would check the box in word. Any idea what command to use?

    It is easy for one specific value with following command { IF { MERGEFIELD "mergefieldname" } = "True" "symbol for checked box" "symbol for unchecked box" }

    Thanks in advance!

  2. Hi - When I go to mail merge on Word from an Excel spreadsheet with multiple worksheets, I go to select recipients, select the excel document and then a box appears to select which worksheet you want to use. I currently have 5 tabs on the excel spreadsheet and yet the box that asks you to chose which sheet you want shows around 30 - different duplicates of the originals. This is really frustrating. Is there any way to remove these either via word or excel, without deleting the originals from the list?

  3. Thanks for all these explanation.
    My datasheet (table) contains formulas (=OFFSET(Extract20130404;MATCH(A274;Extract20130404[Delivery customer];0)-1;MATCH($D$1;Extract20130404[#Headers];0)-1;1;1))

    Is there a way to merge even if the data is made of formulas?
    Up to know I can't merge. The only way I found is to copy/paste special (values only) and then merge. But this way is a waste of time.

    Thanks by advance.

  4. Greetings,
    Thank you for detailed post.
    I have a query,request your expert comment on the same.
    Is it possible to append new records in the already mail merged document, without saving it as a separate file?
    I have an excel file containing 120 records (rows). I prepared a letter and inserted the fields from the said excel file. Thereafter, I performed mail merge. Now I have two files, the first one with only one letter and a connecting link with excel data and the second one with 120 letters. Now if I add say 10 more rows in the excel file, how can I get it updated in the second file containing 120 letters?

    Regards,

  5. When doing a mail merge in MS Office Professional Plus 2013 I set my greeting line format to be Dear Mr. Randall, but the preview shows it as Dear Jack Randall. If I go into Match Fields and change the first name block to "not matched" it goes to the default "Dear Sir or Madam,". Do you know how I can get this to work?

  6. Hi dear,
    Many thanks for your great full & clear explanation regard this & hope to with you furthe trouble when obtaining this digital world.
    Wish you sucess.

    Thanks again,
    Maduranga Fernando

  7. When I use the DDE option as indicated I am unable to select a specific sheet for my import ( My file has different sheets , linked to each other so I don't want to paste it in a seperate sheet. It slows down the computer is the sheets are linked to sheets in different files) I do I get around this

  8. I am trying to do a mail merge from Excel to Word in a Chart-type form. I can everything to merge except one field. This field will occasionally pull correctly but typically pulls as 0. It should be in the format ####### or blank. I have tried changing the format of the excel file to many different types but this field does not work.

    Please help.

  9. Hey - Thank you so much for these easy to follow instructions. I've tried mail merge before and I wanted to pull my hair out. I'm glad I found your instructions. You rock!

  10. The manual is great!
    There is also Gendo (www.gendo.me) that does it a bit faster ( merges data into docx template).

  11. Hi,

    We are using mail merge by disseminating email to our member. This features on MS office is very helpful to our association. However, we experience lately that some of our email hasn't successfully received by the recipient. It's weird because when you check the email, it's already on sent items folder.

    I'm using MS Office 2013 under Window 7 as operating system. I tried to look for a solution by checking it to internet. I follow and do all instruction they advice but still no avail. I hope you can help us with this issue.

  12. how can i re-arrange numbering on the merged document?

  13. I am trying to format the numbering in the word document after mail merging. There are several documents that need to be numbered.

    Please assist.

  14. Everything is very useful on your site so first a big thank you. When I am trying to fix the percentage fields in my WORD document being merged from Excel, they are still not displaying correctly according to your instructions. 0.36734693877551022 needs to be formatted as a percent which in actuality needs to be displayed as 37%. Your instructions either allow it to look like .36% or 0%. Can you please send me the formula to achieve this? I am sure it can be done.

    Thanks for your help.

    1. Hello Lisa,

      Please try to apply the “Percentage” format to your cells in Excel.

  15. Hey Buddy,

    Thanks you very much,
    I want to convert the number into % format, tried many solution, some of work sometimes so very disappointed but this trick works very easily.

    Thanks a lot!!!

  16. I am using mail merge to create a set of invoices. I then want to be able to email them to the recipients. Can Word mail merge handle that or do I need another piece of software to email out the invoices when created? I have the email addresses in the same excel spreadsheet that gives the other details for the mail merge as we request recipients to validate the email address we have on file for them at the bottom of their invoice.

    1. Hello Lan,

      I am sorry, there is no way to fulfill your task using the standard Microsoft Word features. You need special software for this task, please google for it – there are quite many programs that can help you. We can’t recommend you anything as you know better what features you need.

  17. Hi!
    I am trying to make a mail merge, from data in excel sheet. One of the columns has this pattern: 000-000-000
    When I import the list, enter the field of that column, it comes out on the label like this:000000000
    Do you know the reason? How can I save it in the above layout?

    Thank you

  18. HI

    I need to draft increase letters and using annual amount so I need the salary to appear like this R120 846.00 without me separating the thousand and Hundreds currently even though I have a space between thousands and Hundreds it appears like theses R120846.00

    Please help

  19. Dear Svetlana Cheusheva:
    I have a problem while acting upon the method you mentioned above. i.e (2. Browse to your spreadsheet, double-click it, choose MS Excel Worksheets via DDE (*.xls), then click OK.)
    When i select "MS Excel Worksheets via DDE (*.xls)" it shows an error message. Message from this box is as under:
    "Word could not re-establish a DDE connection to MS Excel to complete the current task"

    Detail mentioned in this box is here:
    "This error message can appear if you attempt to insert a database into a Word document as an object or attach an Access data source to a Word mail-merge main document.
    This error message usually occurs if there is a problem communicating via Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE).
    Possible remedies are to reboot the system or attach the data source using an alternate method (ODBC, DAO).
    For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 918594."

    Dear i am in dire need to retain the original format. Kindly help me.

    Blessed
    Muhammad Saqib

  20. How do I use the decimal alignment tab to lineup my numbers by decimal place while performing the merge? Everytime I try to do this after the merge it just pushes every other part of the merge into a different place.

  21. Wow! I found multiple articles to learn about the Mail Merge option in Word and yet you clearly explained here what took all those separate articles to explain. Thank you! I have a question though.

    My specific application of the mail merge is from an Excel file that is consistently being updated throughout the day. In other words, recipients are being added to the Excel file list periodically during the day. I would like to print my letters (in my specific application they are certificates) periodically throughout the day with the most updated recipient list from the Excel file. It is the same Excel file every time. What I have attempted is to "Refresh" the file in Word after clicking on "Edit Recipient List," then selecting the Data Source, then clicking "Refresh." Yet this does not seem to work. I cannot see the most recently added recipients.

    Any ideas?

    Thanks again for the article!

    Don

    1. Hello Don,

      Thank you very much for your kind words. If your Excel data reside in a simple Excel range, try converting it into an Excel Table (select the data and click Insert tab > Table). Then enter the Table Name in the corresponding field on the Design tab and specify this table name as the data source when doing mail merge. If "Refresh" still doesn't work, then you can send a small sample workbook with your data and the Mail merge pattern to support@ablebits.com and our support team will try to help.

      1. Don, if your data is not refreshing in your Word mail merge document, make sure the Excel workbook has been saved. Word cannot see your on-screen Excel data, only data that has actually been saved in the workbook.

  22. If I am producing, say, 40 merge letters, can I run the merge without printing, but save the file of 40 letters to be printed later? Thanks.

    1. Hello Don,

      You can save the mail merge file as a usual Word document by clicking the Save button or pressing Ctrl+S.

  23. Hi - I am trying to do a mailmerge and when I try and connect the spreadsheet I need to use to input the fields I get an "error" message which says that it is not in the correct format?

    Are you able to help?

    Thanks

  24. Hi,

    Is it possible to only merge cells that are a specific color on the spreadsheet? I have categories divided by color, and only want to merge one specific category.

    Maggie

    1. Hello Maggie,

      You can fulfill your task using VBA functions. If you can send a sample workbook to support@ablebits.com, our support team will try to help.

  25. Hi,
    can u do mail merge from Excel to Word by vba coding also.

  26. Hi Svetlana,

    I need to create a macro in excel that can do a mail merge on a single row of data for me.

    More specifically, I would like the macro starts off by asking me which row in excel be mail-merged.(or the macro can start off after I highlighted a row) Then somehow I would like to activate mail merge inside of my excel macro code-up to the last step-print preview of my merged letter. The computers in my company are using word 2003 and excel 2003... Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

    1. Hi Jialin,

      I'm sorry, I have very little experience with macros. You can probably try finding a solution on targeted forums like mrexcel.com or excelforum.com.

  27. After I changed my settings to use the DDE I can no longer choose a different tab on the excel spreadsheet that I choose in mail merge to get my data to go on my letter in word via mail merge. Is there a way to choose the specific tab still?

  28. Hello,
    I’m merge excel file with word 2013 to fill a preprinted form. This requires merger letter by letter (letters finally are printed in separate pre-printed squares). I have a problem with names like “Anna Maria” where I have space in the middle.
    I separate letters in excel (one letter by column) and merge. When imported letter is a space (in this case fifth) is not included in word. The merged document shows ANNAMARIA. When replace space by “_” everything looks fine (Anna_Maria). How to overcome this problem?
    Jarek

  29. Hi, My query is how do I translate a set date from excell over to microsoft word. I have gotten many different dates by "Ctrl ;" a worksheet For example a date being 16 October 2014. When I go the the mailings section it changes it to gibberish: 41931. I have read the "Format date and time" section many times but have been unable to fix this thanks.

  30. how do I mail merge a cell which contains the formula into Ms word.actually I am calculating the EMI in excel through formula but in Ms word it is not functioning. plz help.

    1. Hello Rinku,

      It looks strange. Generally, the formula results are copied to Word, not the formulas themselves. You'd better contact Microsoft support service (support.microsoft.com) regarding this issue.

  31. How do I get a document (11x8.5), that has cards set 3 up on the page to change personalization records on each card?

    1. Serena Grayson, if you have all the merge fields in each of the 3 cards on the page, and you see identical information on all of them, then you must let Word know that this form contains multiple "pages".

      1] Place your cursor in the first position in the "new" record
      2] Click on the Mailings tab
      3] Select Rules then Next Record
      4] Repeat this for each new record on the page

      This tells Word that there are to be multiple records on a single page, and that the next record will begin at this point.

    2. Hello Serena,

      I am sorry, your task is not quite clear. Please describe it in more detail.

  32. I have zero dollar amounts that I want to show as zero in my word merge. No matter how I format (currency, text, etc.), the zero value fields in word are blank. Help

  33. I am using Office 2013 at work. I have followed the steps for the DDE Dynamic Data Exchange. Whenever I select the Excel file I get an error message: "Something went wrong". It suggested I repair office, which I did and I still can not complete my mail merge. I am able to complete the same mail merge on my home computer with Office 2010. What can I do to use my Office 2013 to complete my mail merge?

  34. If Excel has words in different colours, is it possible that once you've mailmerged it to Word the different colours will appear on the Word document please ?

  35. I mean having for example "Hi #FirstName, #ObjMesForFirstname"

    #fields coming from list as #AdressBlock or #GreetingLine mentionned in your article

  36. Dear Svetlana,
    First, Congratulation for your great work !
    Just a question : Is there a way to personalize the object of the message when merging as email messages ? I mean having for example "Hi <>, <>" as message object ? I can't find it in dialog box ? Is it possible with a Macro or ???.
    Thanks in advance
    Jocelyne.

  37. My query is if i m preparing annual letters and few employeesare getting special allowance which i will reflect otjer than the sub heads of salary then while using if-then-else condition how different values can be merged.

    1. Hello Kuldeep,

      Please send me a sample workbook with your data at support@ablebits.com Most likely, the if/else logic should be implemented in Excel columns, and the result passed to Word.

  38. Hi Jeff

    I want to personalize a letter with different case numbers.

    1. Sorry, I cannot follow you. Could you elaborate on the task, please?

  39. Is there anyway to bring the colour of the excel cell over.?

    1. Hi Jeff,

      Sorry, I do not exactly understand your question. If you want to have the color of your Excel cells automatically copied to a Word document during Mail Merge, this is not possible. If you are asking about something different, please explain in more detail. Thank you!

      1. I think he meant the color of the text set in Excel. I found this can't be done. Also the text formatting (italic, bold, underlined) transfer from Excel also is not possible. But you have option to use existing format of the paragraph, or not (using \* charformat to derive).

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