When you connect to a certain data file, you might not want to merge information from all the records in that data file into your main document.

To narrow the list of recipients or use a subset of the items in your data file, do the following:

  1. On the Mailings tab, in the Start Mail Merge group, click Edit Recipient List.

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  2. In the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box, do any of the following:
    • Select individual records This method is most useful if your list is short. Select the check boxes next to the recipients you want to include, and clear the check boxes next to the recipients you want to exclude.

      If you know that you want to include only a few records in your merge, you can clear the check box in the header row and then select only those records that you want. Similarly, if you want to include most of the list, select the check box in the header row, and then clear the check boxes for the records that you don't want to include.

    • Sort records Click the column heading of the item that you want to sort by. The list sorts in ascending alphabetical order (from A to Z). Click the column heading again to sort the list in descending alphabetical order (Z to A).

      If you want more complex sorting, click Sort under Refine recipient list and choose your sorting preferences on the Sort Records tab of the Filter and Sort dialog box. For example, you can use this type of sorting if you want recipient addresses to be alphabetized by last name within each zip code and the zip codes listed in numerical order.

    • Filter records This is useful if the list contains records that you know you don't want to see or include in the merge. After you filter the list, you can use the check boxes to include and exclude records.

      To filter records, do the following:

      1. Under Refine recipient list, click Filter.
      2. On the Filter Records tab of the Filter and Sort dialog box, choose the criteria you want to use for the filter.

        For example, to generate copies of your main document only for addresses that list Australia as the country/region, you would click Country or Region in the Field list, Equal to in the Comparison list, and Australia in the Compare to list.

      3. To refine the filter further, click And or Or, and then specify more criteria.

        For example, to generate copies of your main document only for businesses in Munich, you would filter on records whose City field contains Munich and whose Company Name field is not blank. If you use Or instead of And in this filter, your mail merge includes all Munich addresses as well as all addresses that include a company name, regardless of city.

Note If you have installed address validation software, you can click Validate addresses in the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box to validate your recipients' addresses.