How to Create a Simple Mail Merge in Word (Beginner Guide)

A simple mail merge needs two files: an Excel list with one row per person, and one Word letter. Word reads the list and produces one copy of the letter for every row, with the name and address filled in. Below is the shortest correct way to do it in Microsoft Word, using a three-row example you can copy.

What is a mail merge?

A mail merge combines a main document (the letter that stays the same for everyone) with a data source (the list of information that changes per person, usually an Excel sheet). Inside the main document you place merge fields, placeholders such as «FirstName» that Word replaces with the value from each row. The result is one personalized letter per row: if your list has 200 rows, you get 200 letters.

You need:

• Microsoft Word for Windows or Mac (the desktop app). Word on the web cannot run a mail merge.
• An Excel file with your recipients. A CSV file works the same way.

The example: a short letter to three people

We will send a thank-you letter to three workshop participants. This is the whole Excel list:

FirstName	LastName	Street	City	PostalCode
Sarah	Jones	120 Pine Street	Denver	80201
David	Smith	45 Oak Avenue	Chicago	60610
Maria	Lopez	8 Lake Drive	Austin	73301

Two rules matter even for a list this small: the column names go in row 1 (no title above them), and every person gets exactly one row.

How to create a simple mail merge in Word: 8 steps

1. Create the list in Excel. Type the table above into a new workbook, starting in cell A1. Save it (for example as participants.xlsx) and close Excel.
2. Write the letter in Word. Open a new blank document and type the text that is the same for everyone. Leave the spots for the name and address empty for now. Do not type placeholders like [Name] by hand: Word would print them literally.
3. Choose the document type. Go to the Mailings tab, click Start Mail Merge and choose Letters.
4. Connect the Excel list. Click Select Recipients > Use an Existing List, pick participants.xlsx, and click Open. In the Select Table window, choose the sheet that holds your list (for example Sheet1$), make sure First row of data contains column headers is ticked, and click OK.
5. Insert the merge fields. Click where the address should start, then use Insert Merge Field to add FirstName, type a space, add LastName, press Enter, add Street, and so on. Put another FirstName field after "Dear ". Each field appears in chevrons, like «FirstName».
6. Preview the result. Click Preview Results. The chevrons are replaced by Sarah's data. Use the arrow buttons next to it to check David and Maria too.
7. Create the letters. Click Finish & Merge > Edit Individual Documents, choose All, and click OK. Word opens a new document with one letter per page, three pages in our example.
8. Save or print. Save the new document under its own name, or print it with Ctrl+P. You can also choose Finish & Merge > Print Documents to send the letters straight to the printer.

After step 5, the letter looks like this in Word:

«FirstName» «LastName»
«Street»
«City» «PostalCode»

Dear «FirstName»,

Thank you for joining our spreadsheet workshop last week.
Your certificate will follow by post.

Kind regards,
Tom Baker

And the first finished letter looks like this:

Sarah Jones
120 Pine Street
Denver 80201

Dear Sarah,

Thank you for joining our spreadsheet workshop last week.
Your certificate will follow by post.

Kind regards,
Tom Baker

Save the main document for next time

Save the letter with the merge fields too (step 2's document, not the generated one). When you open it again, Word shows a message that it will run an SQL command to read your data. That is normal: click Yes and the connection to your Excel file comes back. If you add new rows in Excel later, save the workbook and the next mail merge includes them.

Quick fixes for beginner problems

• Insert Merge Field is grey and does nothing. No list is connected yet. Do step 4 first.
• The letter shows «FirstName» instead of a name. Click Preview Results. The finished letters from step 7 always contain real values.
• A field name has underscores, like First_Name. Your Excel column was called "First Name". Word replaces spaces with underscores. It still works.
• Postal codes lose their leading zero, or amounts show too many decimals. This is a data formatting issue, explained in our guide to preparing Excel data for a mail merge.
• Only one letter appears. In step 7 you probably chose Current record. Run it again with All.

Where to go next

This walkthrough covers the basic letter. Once it works, these guides go further:

• How to create a mail merge in Word: every option on the Mailings tab, including filters, Address Block, Greeting Line, Rules and email, plus fixes for common errors.
• Business letter mail merge: salutations by title, paragraphs that only some recipients get, and printing versus PDF versus email.

The same Mailings tab also creates envelopes and labels. LibreOffice Writer has a similar Mail Merge Wizard if you do not have Word.

The same mail merge in MailMergic

If you do not have Word on your computer, or you want each letter as its own PDF file instead of one long document, you can do the same mail merge in the browser with MailMergic:

1. Upload your Word letter (.docx).
2. Upload your Excel list, a CSV file, or connect a Google Sheet. The first row becomes your list of fields.
3. Drag the column names into the letter where the data should go.
4. Preview a few rows, then generate one PDF or Word file per row. Download them, or email each document to its recipient (email sending is part of the paid plans).

Nothing to install, and the free plan covers 100 documents a month (with a watermark). Start a Word mail merge in MailMergic, or read more about Word mail merge with MailMergic.