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Mail merge consists of combining mail and
letters Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alpha ...
and pre-addressed
envelope An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card. Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one of three shapes: a rhombus, a ...
s or mailing labels for mass mailings from a form letter. This feature is usually employed in a word processing document which contains fixed
text Text may refer to: Written word * Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including: **Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred **Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preachin ...
(which is the same in each output document) and variables (which act as placeholders that are replaced by text from the data source word to word). Some word processors can insert content from a database, spreadsheet, or table into text documents. It is a powerful tool for writing a personalized letter or e-mail to many people at the same time. It imports data from another source such as a spreadsheet and then uses that to replace placeholders throughout the message with the relevant information for each individual that is being messaged.


History

Mail merge dates back to early word processors on personal computers, circa 1980.see p. 2-2; MailMerge not a new feature, and this is 2nd Ed, (C) 1982 WordStar was perhaps the earliest to provide this, originally via an ancillary program called Mail merge. WordPerfect also offered this capacity for CP/M and
MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few o ...
systems;
Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor, word processing software developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name ''Multi-Tool Word'' for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other pla ...
added it later on, as did
Multimate MultiMate was a word processor developed by Multimate International for IBM PC MS-DOS computers in the early 1980s. History With 1,000 computers, Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance was one of the first large-volume customers for the IBM PC. It h ...
.


Advanced features

Money can be saved by pre-sorting on zip code and grouping by postal-discount requirements (same ZIP code, same SCF). A paperless approach is to use mail merge to format
email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...
. Going beyond words, in 2018 ''The New York Times'' detailed a further instance of "mass customization" - personalized videos.


Overview

The data source is typically a
spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in ...
or a
database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases ...
which has a field or column for each variable in the template. When the mail merge process is run, the word processing system creates an output document for each row in the database, using the fixed text exactly as it appears. The mail merging process generally requires the following steps: # Creating a main document and the template. # Creating a data source. # Defining the merge fields in the main document. # Merging the data with the main document. # Saving/exporting. A common usage is for creating "personalized" letters, where a template is created, with a field for "Given Name", for example. The templated letter says "Dear ", and when executed, the mail merge creates a letter for each record in the database, so it appears the letter is more personal. It is often used for
variable data printing Variable data printing (VDP) (also known as variable information printing (VIP) or variable imaging (VI)) is a form of digital printing, including on-demand printing, in which elements such as text, graphics and images may be changed from one pri ...
. It can also be used to create address labels from a
customer relationship management Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information. CRM systems compile data from a r ...
database, or for mass emails with pertinent information in them, perhaps a username and password.


See also

*
Desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online ...
* Digital printing *
Dynamic publishing Dynamics (from Greek δυναμικός ''dynamikos'' "powerful", from δύναμις ''dynamis'' "power") or dynamic may refer to: Physics and engineering * Dynamics (mechanics) ** Aerodynamics, the study of the motion of air ** Analytical dyn ...
*
Mass customization In marketing, manufacturing, call centre operations, and management, mass customization makes use of flexible computer-aided systems to produce custom output. Such systems combine the low unit costs of mass production processes with the flexibili ...
* Word processors


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mail Merge Text editor features Word processors