Word Mail Merge Letter and Data Source Preparation
Prepare the data and the letter wording for a clean mail merge.
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[VERIFY] is an editorial flag, not a blank to fill. Wherever the prompt shows [VERIFY], check that item against a reliable source before you use it.
I want to send a personalised letter to many people using mail merge in Word. Purpose of the letter: [PURPOSE]. Who receives it: [RECIPIENT_GROUP]. Data in a spreadsheet (column headings and two invented sample rows): [COLUMN_HEADINGS_AND_SAMPLES]. Tone: [TONE]. A column that changes a paragraph: [CONDITION_COLUMN]. Most mail merge failures come from the spreadsheet, not Word, so check my data first: merged cells, blank rows, a title and surname in one column, postcodes that lost a leading zero, dates stored as text, and duplicate people. Use a small invented table showing how a bad row looks and how it should look after fixing, and say how to fix each in the spreadsheet. Then write the letter with merge fields as «FieldName» where they belong, a safe greeting that works if the first name is missing, and any paragraph that depends on the condition column described as an IF rule in plain words. Use only my column headings and invent no recipient details. For a record needing a different letter (a customer without an address), filter the list and merge that group separately; offer an email-merge version if available [VERIFY]. Finish with the steps to run and preview the merge (menu names where confident, [VERIFY] where not) and a test plan: merge a few records, check the longest name and the one with missing data, then print or save to a new document. Handle personal data properly: only the fields the letter needs, stored securely and deleted when no longer required [VERIFY local rules].
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