How to Create a Simple Mail Merge?

A beginner-friendly guide to the basics of mail merge. Learn the core concepts of combining data with templates.

Simple diagram of data plus template equals document

How to Create a Simple Mail Merge?

“Mail Merge” sounds like a relic from the 90s, but it remains one of the most powerful productivity techniques in the digital age. At its core, it is simply the process of taking a single document template and plugging in data to create many unique documents.

The Three Ingredients

Every mail merge requires three things:

  1. The Template: A document (Word, PDF, HTML) with “holes” in it. These holes are called placeholders or merge fields. Example: Hello {{FirstName}},.
  2. The Data Source: A structured list of information. Usually a spreadsheet (Excel, CSV) or a database.
  3. The Engine: The software that connects the two.

Step-by-Step Example

Let’s say you want to write a letter to 3 friends.

  1. Create Data: Open Excel.

    • Column A: Name
    • Column B: City
    • Row 1: Alice, New York
    • Row 2: Bob, London
    • Row 3: Charlie, Paris

  2. Create Template: Write your letter.

    • “Dear [Name], I hope the weather is nice in [City].”

  3. Run Merge:

    • The engine reads Row 1. [Name] becomes “Alice”. [City] becomes “New York”.
    • Result 1: “Dear Alice, I hope the weather is nice in New York.”
    • It repeats for Bob and Charlie.

Common Uses

  • Labels: Printing address labels for holiday cards.
  • Invoices: Generating bills where only the items and totals change.
  • Contracts: Standard agreements with different client names and dates.

Conclusion

Once you master the simple mail merge, you unlock the ability to communicate personally with thousands of people at once.

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