Mail merge consists of combining mail and
letters and pre-addressed
envelopes or mailing labels for mass mailings from a
form letter.
This feature is usually employed in a
word processing A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features.
Word processor (electronic device), Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicate ...
document which contains fixed
text
Text may refer to:
Written word
* Text (literary theory)
In literary theory, a text is any object that can be "read", whether this object is a work of literature, a street sign, an arrangement of buildings on a city block, or styles of clothi ...
(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 op ...
systems; Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor program, word processing program 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 platf ...
added it later on,
as did Multimate.
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 (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...
.
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 table in a document, or 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 c ...
or database
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...
which has a field or column for each variable in the template. When the word processor's mail merge is run it creates an output document for each row in the data source, using the fixed text from the data source.
The mail merging process generally requires the following steps:
# Creating a main document template.
# Creating a data source.
# Defining the merge fields in the main document template.
# Merging the data source with the main document template.
# 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. It can also be used to create address labels from a customer relationship management 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 dedicated 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 co ...
* Digital printing
* Dynamic publishing
* Mass customization
Mass customization makes use of flexible computer-aided systems to produce custom products. Such systems combine the low unit costs of mass production processes with the flexibility of individual customization.
Mass customization is the new fro ...
* Word processors
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mail Merge
Text editor features
Word processors