We talked about the mail merge toolbar way back in Section One, but let’s look over each of its options again.

 

The actual toolbar looks like this:

 

 

 

Let’s look at each option in the order you would use it in the wizard.

 

The first button () combines steps one and two of the wizard with the dialog box seen to your right. Here, you can choose what type you’re creating and click OK to apply this layout to the document you are in. (Note that Faxes is greyed out unless you have that service configured on your computer.)

 

It’s a good idea to apply your document layout first, as some layouts (such as envelopes and labels) will clear your document to apply the layout.

 

Step three has two different parts to it. First, use the second button on this toolbar () to open a Browse window so you can browse to your address list. Samples of sources include:

-          Access Databases (.mdb, .mde, and .odc)

-          Rich Text files (.rtf)

-          Text files (.prn, .txt, .csv, .tab)

-          Outlook Personal  Address Books (.pab)

-          DBase Files (.dbf)

 

Once you have chosen your source, it won’t be visible in the document. However, you will be able to click the Select Recipients button () to choose what items in that database to use, just like a wizard mail merge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Step 4 of the wizard mail merge, we arranged our document. You can use the following buttons on the toolbar to insert different types of fields:

 

	Opens the Insert Address Block dialog.
	Opens the Greeting Line dialog box.
	Opens the Insert Merge field dialog.
	Opens a menu so you can choose a field type to insert.

 

The fields will appear in your document just as they did when we were using the wizard. And, if you’re creating labels, remember to use the Propagate button () to copy the merge fields to all labels.

 

 

If you would like to see how your merged data will appear, click the  button. This will show you a sample of the merged data using one contact, like this:

 

 

(You can click the  button again to show merge fields instead of the data.)

 

Once you’re done setting up your document, use the appropriate button on the toolbar to choose where to merge to:

 

 

There are a few other buttons on the toolbar that let you work with your records and perform other functions, but those are the basics that you will need to do a mail merge without the wizard.