Mail Merge With Microsoft Word and MySQL Part 1

Part 1 Introduction

What is Mail Merge ?

Mail Merge is a software product that uses a file (or database) of names and addresses, together with a template document, to produce multiple copies of a letter, each personally addressed to a different recipient.

A Mail Merge is also a method of taking data from a database, spreadsheet, or other form of structured data, and inserting it into documents such as letters, mailing labels, and name tags. It usually requires two files, one storing the variable data to be inserted, and the other containing the information that will be the same for each result of the mail merge and the instructions for formatting the variable data.

You use mail merge when you want to create a set of documents that are essentially the same but where each document contains unique elements. For example, in a letter that announces a new product, your company logo and the text about the product will appear in each letter, and the address and greeting line will be different in each letter.

You can also print a set of mailing labels or envelopes by doing a mail merge. For labels, for example, you would construct a source document containing the addresses of the people you wish to print labels for and a main document that controls where each person's name, address, city, state, and zip code will go on the label. The main document would also contain information about how many labels are on a page, the size of each label, the size of the sheet of paper the labels are attached to, and what kind of printer you will use to print the labels. Running a mail merge with the two files results in a set of labels, one for each entry in the source document, with each label formatted according to the information in the main document.

Most major word processing packages, including Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect, are capable of performing a mail merge.

That was introduction from many reference about mail merge. In this special posting we will learn how to make a simple example of mail merge.by using Microsoft Word and MySQL Database Management System. Microsoft Word has a function as the mail merge template provider and MySQL Database as a the data storage provider.

Next Step, 
Part 2. Create New DSN for Microsoft Word and MySQL Server Mail Merge

Part 3. Step By Step Mail Merge Wizard on Microsoft Office 2007
Part 4. Create Mail Merge Template Letter
Part 5. Testing The Letter as Mail merge 
Part 6. Complete The Mail Merge and Then Print

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