Mail Merge using Word and Outlook

How to mail merge with Outlook, Excel and Word

  1. Open Outlook. If you don’t already have your Binghamton Google email in Outlook, refer to the knowledge article on how to use the Google Workspace Sync tool.
  2. Prepare your Excel spreadsheet. Have your Excel spreadsheet prepared with the names and emails of the recipients. Names in one column, emails in another. Make sure these columns have a heading in the first row. Word assumes the first row is a header, so if a recipient is listed in row 1 then Word will treat them as the header and not actually send an email to them. To easily separate first and last names for customized greeting lines, please refer to the knowledge article on separating data in Excel. Once your spreadsheet is in the desired format, save any changes and close Excel.
  3. Open Word. You can create a new blank document or open the draft of the email you’re sending.
    1. Select Mailings from the top ribbon>Start Mail Merge>Step-by-step Mail Merge Wizard…
    2. E-mail messages>Next: Starting document.
    3. Use the current document>Next: Select recipients.
    4. Use an existing list>Browse…>Navigate to the Excel spreadsheet and select it. Open>OK>OK>Next: Write your e-mail message.
    5. Place cursor at head of document. Select Greeting line…>Make desired adjustments for the greeting. Select Match Fields...>Click First name dropdown and select correlating column from Excel spreadsheet for recipients’ names (if you titled the Excel column "name" above the list of all the recipients' names, then you should be able to select "name" from this dropdown)>Next: Preview your e-mail messages.
    6. You can toggle through Recipients and view the letter change in real-time (Recipient: 1 >> Recipient: 2>> et cetera)>Next: Complete the merge.
    7. Electronic Mail…>To: Email>Enter desired Subject line:>Mail format: HTML>OK (clicking OK will automatically send the email out to all recipients if you have Outlook currently open. If Outlook is closed, then the emails won’t send until the next time you open Outlook). 

More detailed documentation for Mail Merge is available from Microsoft's Support website.

If you would like assistance, please feel free to contact the Binghamton University ITS Help Desk at 607-777-6420 or Submit a Request, and we'll be happy to help.

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