Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Open up the Merge File you created in Excel and familiarize yourself with it; in particular with the names of the column headers. If there are extra columns that you don’t need, feel free to delete them. When done, close Excel.

If you created the Merge File simply in order to manipulate the data in Excel then this is the last step for you; if not please continue.

Step 5

Open Microsoft Word and create a new document. Go over to the “Mailings” tab and click on “Start Mail Merge“. Now choose the type of Mail Merge you want to do. For this example we’ll do Labels.

Step 6

With Labels you’ll need to choose which Label you will be using. Word has a large number of stored templates based on different manufacturers; so choose the brand that you have and then the Product number (in the case of store brands like “Staples”, they usually tell you what the “Avery equivalent #” is).

Then click OK.

Step 7

Now you will need to choose what list of names/addresses you want to use. Import the Merge File you created in the earlier steps.

For “File Conversion” choose Windows (Default), then press OK.

Now it should look something like this:

Step 8

Now choose the Merge Fields to Insert. Be sure to leave a “SPACE” between any fields that are on the same row.

Once you’ve filled out the first label, a quick tip is to Copy (Ctrl+C) what you’ve written on  that label and then Paste (Ctrl+V) it into the other spots (under «Next Record»). CAUTION: DO NOT ERASE where is says «Next Record», it will not work otherwise.

Continue Pressing Ctrl+V (Paste) under each «Next Record» until you’ve filled the page.

Once your page is filled click the “Preview Results” button

And see the results:

Step 9

Now all your Labels have different Donors in them. In this current state you can go and Print them out. You must do one page at a time, this is because Label sheets often have to be fed into the printer manually. This set of Labels has 30 to a page, so once you’ve printed off your first page, go up to the top and advance the “starting at” field to 31 (the number you change it to will depend on how many Labels fit on a sheet). This should update all the Labels to the next Donors on your Merge File.

Continue doing this until you’ve printed out Labels for all the Donors on your list.

Step 10

When you’re done with these Labels, deselect the “Preview Results” button so it goes back to showing the field names. Now you can save your template to use it later on. Now the next time you need to print off Labels you will only need to Open this file, go to “Select Recipients” and choose the new Merge File you’ve exported from Silent Partner, and then you can skip Steps 6 through 9 (provided you are using the same type of Labels).

And now you can use Merge Files and Print Labels!

For more information you can take a look at Microsoft’s document on Mail Merges.