Part III: Tips and Tricks

This section explains how deal with the Excel formating problem and also how to use If...Then...Else statements.

1. Excel formatting

The biggest problem with Mail Merge is that Word will often import the data without any formatting at all. Remember that the amount in the preview didn't have cents?

I ran into this problem a lot when I was merging zip codes that started with 0 (as many in New England do). Although my zip codes looked fine in Excel, when I brought them into Word, they would lose the first 0. The way that I dealt with this is to make sure that the zip code field in Excel was formatted as 'text' instead of as a 'number' or 'zip code'. You may have noticed the little green arrows in the "Zip" column of my spreadsheet (see below). This is Excel's way telling me that I have a number stored as text.

When I bring up the preview for Recipient 2, who has a zip starting with a 0, you can see that it appears with the leading 0.

I can correct the money display problem the same way. First, I have to close Word (because otherwise the computer will consider the Excel file already open and will not let me edit it). Then I open my Excel file, change all of the entries in my "Donation amt" column to be formatted as text, and add the cents where needed (there are shortcuts for doing this, but that's for a different tutorial). As you can see, it looks almost the same in Excel, but the difference in Word is dramatic.

 

2. If…Then…Else

'If…Then…Else' statements can also be a really great way of making sure your letter looks less like a form letter and more like a personalized letter. Look at the, "we have enclosed 2 ticket(s)" line above. Wouldn't it be better if it said "ticket" when the number was 1 and "tickets" when it was more than one? Mail Merge lets you do that with the use of 'If…Then…Else…' statements.

 

To insert an 'If…Then…Else…' statement, highlight the location in your letter where you want it to go. Then select the 'Insert Word Field' on the Mail Merge toolbar and choose 'If…Then…Else…'

Once it is clicked, an 'Insert Word Field: IF' box will appear. In this case, I want to set it up so that if the number of tickets equals 1, then the document should say "ticket." Otherwise, it should say "tickets." I used the pull down menus to select the 'Field Name' "M_of_Tickets" and the 'Comparison' "Equals to." Then I filled out the rest of the boxes to fit my desired specifications.

Now, when I look at my preview, it will say either "ticket" or "tickets" depending on the number of tickets entered into the "# of Tickets" column in my spreadsheet.

 

next section >