Mail Merge for Snail Mail

[Bill Tobin]

I work out of my home and need to start mailing about 100 letters a month to
prospective customers. I will probably (if that's the easiest way) download
the contact data from InfoUSA into an
Excel 2000 spreadsheet. I have Word, Excel and Outlook 2000 along with
Publisher 2002 from which to choose to design the letter and perform the
mail merge. This is just a standard introductory letter and envelope-nothing
fancy
but the letter/envelope does have my company logo which is a graphic.

I've never tried to do this before and would like a recommendation on the
best
way to go about it. Is downloading the list into Excel the best way to
"capture" the list on my computer? Which program is best/easiest to export
to and perform the mail merge? Is there a tutorial to show me the steps? Of
the programs I listed, I probably know Publisher the best. I will print
these on my own printer. Thanks very much for any ideas.

 

[Ed Bennett]

After managing to set up OE-QuoteFix on his new PC, Ed reads a message

Is downloading the list into Excel the best way to
"capture" the list on my computer?

If you can get it to do that, then that would be the best way - but before
merging, export your spreadsheet as a CSV file (Publisher prefers to merge
from CSV than to merge from XLS)

Which program is best/easiest to
export to and perform the mail merge?

Probably Publisher.

Is there a tutorial to show me
the steps?

There are merge tutorials at:
http://www.kvalheim.org

You may find something of interest here (most of the templates use the Merge
feature):
http://www.users.bigpond.com/auslandline/publisher/

 

[Bill Tobin]

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the reply but I couldn't find a mail/merge for letters/envelopes
at either site. All I could find were templates for raffle tickets, Avery
Labels, etc. Do you know of one specifically for letters/envelopes?

 

[Ed Bennett]

After managing to set up OE-QuoteFix on his new PC, Ed reads a message

Thanks for the reply but I couldn't find a mail/merge for
letters/envelopes at either site. All I could find were templates for
raffle tickets, Avery Labels, etc. Do you know of one specifically
for letters/envelopes?

Have you actually tried doing a merge? I think you will wonder why you
wanted a tutorial when you do.
It isn't hard - you are guided through the process by the wizard (that
appears in the Mail Merge task pane)

There's a tutorial for Publisher 2000 (I think that's the version it is,
anyway) here:
http://www.msdwc.k12.in.us/ses/training/pubmerge.pdf

And there's a 2002 tutorial here:
http://www.bcentral.co.uk/technology/office/other/publisher/PublisherHowTo/CustomerMailings.asp

But the advice I would give is to avoid tutorials - just dive in and try
doing it with some sample data (or the actual publication).
Then you will learn the process more quickly and will not need to look at
the tutorial the next time.

 

[jim willis]

Thanks Ed. The 2002 link you sent is just what I was looking for.