If all of that sounds awfully complicated, it is. It’s much easier to start the mail merge from Word using their wizard. Here’s how to start a mail merge from Microsoft Word: 

1. Open Word and ensure there is a blank document open.

2. Click the Tools menu, choose Letters and Mailings, and click Mail Merge. This will launch the mail merge wizard. You can see it highlighted in blue in the picture below:

 

 

Now we can follow through the steps in the wizard.

1. Choose the type of document you want to create: letters, e-mail messages, envelopes, labels, or a directory.

2. Choose to change the current document or use an existing document.

3. Select recipients; in this situation we’ll pick use Outlook contacts. Then click Choose Contacts folder. You may be prompted to choose which profile to use; click OK to this prompt. Then when the window with your contacts folder appears, click OK to that as well. You’ll then get a window which will allow you to check which contacts you want to include. (You can see an example of this window below:

 

 

4. Arrange your document. A list of fields is provided to include in your document (such as address block and greeting line). These fields will be slightly different depending on what type of document you’ve chosen, but all you have to do to include the field in your document is click it, set the options as prompted, and click OK. (Of course, you can also type regular text in the document in addition to the mail merge fields.) With labels, you must click Update all Labels to copy the layout of the first label to all labels.

5. Preview your document. If you want to change anything, just click Back. If not, click Next.

6. This is where you finalize your merge. Click “Edit individual <document type>.” This will let you edit your document if you need to. (You can also perform other Word functions with it, like saving or printing the document.)

 

Here’s a visual walkthrough of all the screens: