mail merge tutorial

Setting Up Your Spreadsheet

This will be the most involved process, for sure. If you're organized/Type A/OCD/anal/(whatever word you deem appropriate here), like me, then chances are you already have a spreadsheet set up for your guest list. Perfect! It will probably only take a few tweaks to be mail merge ready. I'll start from scratch, though, to make things simple.

1. Create a new spreadsheet in your program of choice - we already know that my heart belongs to google docs, but since the majority of people are more comfortable with excel, I'm going to use that. I like to adjust my page setup to landscape and zoom in so I don't have to squint.

(click on any of the photos to see a larger image)

2. Set up your columns - the way you set this up depends on how you want your envelopes to look. For me, I wanted them to be in the following format:

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Blow
1234 Main Street
New York, New York
10010

Therefore, my columns were like so:


Title - for Mr. and Mrs. or Miss or Ms. or Dr., etcetera
First
Last
Other - I set this up for those envelopes that had a recipient name on a second line. For instance, two friends who are engaged and living together but not yet married or for children. Write this in exactly as you want it on the envelope.
Address 1 - for the street address
Address 2 - for apartment numbers
City
State - determine whether you want the full name or just an abbreviation
Zip

3. Fill in your data!


Prepping Your Word Document

The next step in this process is creating a mail merge template in Word. Unfortunately, Google Docs doesn't have a mail merge option (boo), so if you created your spreadsheet there you can just download it onto your computer, which we will need later.

1. Open up a new document in Word

2. Adjust your settings - since the default is set to 8.5 x 11, we need to make some adjustments to accommodate an envelope. I'm going to use the measurements for an A7 (5.25 x 7.25) envelope since those seem to be fairly common in the wedding world.

a. Go to "File" and click on "Page Setup"
b. Click the drop down arrow next to "Paper Size" and select "Manage Custom Sizes"



c. Change the name of your custom size by clicking once on the name listed. It should say untitled. If not, click the plus sign to add a custom size.
d. Change the Page Size to 7.25 width and 5.25 height (or whatever size your envelope is)
e. Change the Printer Margins if you need to. I set mine to 0.25 on each side (but you can leave them on the default settings if you want).
f. Click "OK" and then "OK" again.

You should now have a document that looks like this:


3. Adjust your vertical alignment


a. Go to "Format" and click on "Document"
b. Click on "Layout" (at the top)
c. Click the drop down arrow next to "Vertical Alignment" and select "Bottom"
d. Click "OK"

4. Adjust your horizontal alignment


a. Make sure your Toolbox is open
b. Under "Alignment and Spacing" choose "Align Center"

Creating a Mail Merge Template

This next part might get a little tricky.

1. Go to "Tools" and click on "Mail Merge Manager"


2. A new "toolbox" should pop up somewhere. Under "Select Document Type" click on "Create New" and then "Form Letters" (You might notice that there is an "Envelopes" option - don't click on this or your formatting will get screwed up)


3. Under "Select Recipients List" click "Get List" then "Open Data Source"


4. Navigate to your saved Excel spreadsheet and click "Open" (a warning might pop up, just click "OK")


5. If another dialogue box pops up, like the one below, select "Entire Workbook" from the drop down menu and click "OK"


6. You should now see the column titles you created earlier under "Insert Placeholders." Drag these into your document one by one to set up your template, placing spaces and commas where needed


7. Now that you have the basic template, you can customize the font, size, color, etcetera


8. Almost there! Before you actually perform the mail merge, you can first preview to make sure everything is set up correctly. Click the "View Merged Data" button under "Preview Results" and use the red arrows to scroll through your data.


9. Now for some magic. If everything looks good, click on "Merge to New Document" under "Complete Merge"


10. And Voila! All of your envelopes are in one document, ready to print.


Now, if you only have five or ten addresses, it would probably be quicker just to copy and paste or re-type these into Word. For our save the dates, though, I had over 100 envelopes to print so this was definitely a time saver (especially since I already had a spreadsheet)! Also, if you want to do labels instead of printing directly onto the envelopes, you can do that through mail merge too! Just let me know if you want a separate tutorial on that.

why mail merge is my best friend

...when it comes to printing a boat-load of envelopes, that is.

I know I've already waxed poetic about Google Docs, but now it's time for me to share the love - with Word and the wonder (and time saver) that is Mail Merge. For those of you wanting hand-written or calligraphed envelopes, mail merge doesn't really apply. The future mister and I, however, decided to print on our save the date envelopes with the same font we used on the stds for a cohesive look and to save time and money. What's that you say? Re-typing a hundred or so names and addresses into word to print on envelopes doesn't save time? Mail merge to the rescue! If you already have a guest list set up in spreadsheet form, it won't take very long at all. A few clicks here, a few adjustments there and you have a Word doc with all of your envelopes ready to print.

(click to enlarge)

I've actually created a tutorial, which I'll post on Monday for those of you interested.

What shortcuts did you use (if any) to save your time and/or sanity during the planning process?

my not so secret love affair

It started a few years ago. At work. It was love at first sight. Google Docs, oh how I love you.

I know I'm probably not the first to gush about the amazingness of Google Docs. Those of you who use it know what I'm talking about. And those of you who still email documents to yourself or carry around flash drives or external hard drives need to get with the program. I cross my heart, it's the best thing since sliced bread - especially when it comes to wedding planning!

(click all screenshots to enlarge)

Pros:
Keeps me organized
Works just like Microsoft Office
I can upload documents and files not created in Google Docs (i.e. all my vendor contracts)
All of my documents are easily accessible as long as I have the Internet
I can share my documents or folders with other people

Cons:
Unfortunately, other than my dad and the future mister, most of our family members are not computer savvy enough (or willing to learn) to use the collaboration feature

My favorite use so far has been with the guest list. The last few weeks we have been in the process of gathering addresses. So as soon as we get one, I can pop it into my spreadsheet whether I'm at work, on my desktop computer in my home office, or on the future mister's laptop while sitting in the living room. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.

Another great thing about Google Docs? TEMPLATES! Budget spreadsheets, to-do lists, calendars, resumes, photo albums...




and wedding planning! Last spring, I believe, Google Docs teamed up with Style Me Pretty to roll out various types of wedding templates - budget, guest list, schedule, to-do list, seating chart, music list, etc. Or you can have them all in one document and download the All-in-One Wedding Planner, which is what I did.

The budget spreadsheets are pretty awesome because they automatically calculate everything for you. I mostly use it to keep track of vendors, though. For instance, when I was researching DOCs, the spreadsheet allowed me to keep track of each company, their contact information, price, notes, and I also added a column to indicate when I contacted each person. I plan on doing the same for a make-up artist/hair stylist and any other vendors I don't have booked yet.



My only gripe, which isn't really a gripe at all, is with the guest list spreadsheet. I chose to create my own spreadsheet so I could set it up properly for mail merge (more on that later). The bottom line is that I Love Google Docs. And I promise that they didn't pay me to say that.

Do you share my love affair with Google Docs? How did you stay organized during your planning?