To merge information into your main document, you must connect the document to a data source, or a data file. If you don't already have a data file, you can create one during the mail merge process.

Choose a data file

  1. On the Mailings tab, in the Start Mail Merge group, click Select Recipients.

    word ribbon image

  2. Do one of the following:
    • If you want to use your Contacts list in Outlook, click Select from Outlook Contacts.

      showTips for working with Microsoft Outlook Contacts list

      Connecting to your Outlook Contacts folder is usually a straightforward process, but sometimes you may encounter a problem. Here are solutions to common problems that you may encounter:


      I can't find my Outlook Contacts folder

      You may need to turn on the Show this folder as an e-mail Address Book property in Outlook, or you may need to change your Outlook user profile.

      Turn on the Show this folder as an e-mail Address Book property

      1. In Microsoft Office Outlook, on the Go menu, click Contacts.
      2. Right-click the Contacts folder that contains the information that you want to use for a mail merge, and then click Properties.
        contact properties in outlook
      3. On the Outlook Address Book tab, make sure that the Show this folder as an e-mail Address Book check box is selected, and then click OK.

      Change your Outlook user profile

      An Outlook user profile is a group of e-mail accounts and address books. Usually, you need only one profile - but if you share your computer with other people or use different address books for different purposes, you can set up more than one profile. If, when you start your mail merge, you're using a profile that doesn't include the Contacts folder that you want to use, that folder won't be available.

      To switch to a different user profile, restart Outlook. When you're prompted for a profile, choose the profile that includes the Contacts folder that you want to use in the mail merge.

      If you aren't prompted for a profile and you know that you have more than one, you may want to set up Outlook so that it prompts you. To do this:

      1. Close Outlook.
      2. In Control Panel, switch to Classic View, and then click Mail.
      3. Click Show Profiles.
      4. To be prompted to select a profile each time you start Outlook, click Prompt for a profile to be used, and then click OK.

      I get error messages about mail clients and tables

      If you try to connect to your Contacts folder during a mail merge in Word, and Outlook is not set up as your default e-mail program in Windows Internet Explorer, you will get an error message that says:

      "Either there is no default mail client or the current mail client cannot fulfill the messaging request. Please run Microsoft Office Outlook, and set it as the default mail client."

      To avoid getting this message during a mail merge, do the following:

      1. Exit Word.
      2. On the Internet Explorer Tools menu, click Internet Options, and then click the Programs tab.
      3. Under E-mail, click Microsoft Office Outlook, and then click OK.

      Start Word again, open your mail merge document, and connect to your Outlook Contacts folder.

      I can't connect to an Outlook Contacts folder in Public Folders

      If you start a mail merge in Word and try to connect to an Outlook Contacts folder in Public Folders, you get an error message that says:

      "The operation cannot be completed because of dialog or database engine failures. Please try again later."

      If you try again later, you get the same error message.

      To use a Public Folders Contacts folder as the data file for your mail merge, you have to start the mail merge from within Outlook.

      I want to use my Outlook Express address book as my Contacts folder

      You can't connect to this type of address book directly during a merge. Instead, export your Outlook Express address book as a .csv text file and then connect to it in that form.

      Export your Outlook Express address book:

      1. Start Microsoft Outlook Express.
      2. On the File menu, point to Export, and then click Address Book.
      3. In the Address Book Export Tool dialog box, click Text File (Comma Separated Values), and then click Export.
      4. In the Save exported file as box, type a file name for your exported file, and then click Browse.
      5. In the Save As dialog box, in the Save in list, choose where you want to save the file, and then click Save. It's handy to save data files in the My Data Sources folder in your My Documents folder. That's where Word looks first for data files when you browse for them during a merge.
      6. Click Next. Select the check boxes next to the fields that you want to export, and then click Finish.

        Note When you are deciding which fields to export, think about the form letters or e-mail messages or labels that you intend to create with mail merge. For example, if you never include nicknames or personal Web sites in your merged documents, don't export those fields.

      7. When you receive the message that the export procedure is completed, click OK.
      8. To close the Address Book Export Tool dialog box, click Close, and then exit Outlook Express.

      When you're back in Word performing your mail merge and you come to the step where you connect to a data file, click the Use an existing list option, and browse to locate the .csv file that you just exported. Before the file opens, you may be asked to select which separator character will separate one column from another in your address list. Click Comma, and then click OK.

    • If you have a Microsoft Office Excel worksheet, a Microsoft Office Access database, or another type of data file, click Use Existing List, and then locate the file in the Select Data Source dialog box.

      For Excel, you can select data from any worksheet or named range within a workbook. For Access, you can select data from any table or query that is defined in the database. For another type of data file, select the file in the Select Data Source dialog box. If the file is not listed, select the appropriate file type or select All Files in the Files of type box. In a mail merge, you can use the following types of data files:

      • Files from single-tier, file-based database programs for which you have installed an OLE DB provider or ODBC driver (a number of which are included with Microsoft Office).
      • An HTML file that has a single table. The first row of the table must contain column names, and the other rows must contain data.
      • Electronic address books:
        • Microsoft Outlook Address Book
        • Microsoft Schedule+ 7.0 Contact List
        • Any similar address lists that were created with a MAPI -compatible messaging system, such as Microsoft Outlook.
      • A Microsoft Word document. The document should contain a single table. The first row of the table must contain headings, and the other rows must contain the records that you want to merge. You can also use a header source as a data source.
      • Any text file that has data fields separated (or delimited) by tab characters or commas and data records separated by paragraph marks.

      showTips for formatting data in Excel

      If your data file is an Excel worksheet that includes percentages, currency values, or postal codes, you can preserve the numeric formatting of the data by using Dynamic Data Exchange to connect to the Excel worksheet from Word. For example, you can make sure a five-digit postal code of 07865 from your data file is not displayed as the number 7865 (without the leading zero).

      Before you connect to the worksheet, do the following in Word:

      1. Click the Microsoft Office Button button image, and then click Word Options.
      2. Click Advanced.
      3. Scroll to the General section, and select the Confirm file format conversion on open check box.
      4. Click OK.
      5. With the mail merge main document open, in the Start Mail Merge group of the Mailings tab, click Select Recipients, and then click Use Existing List.
      6. Locate the Excel worksheet in the Select Data Source dialog box, and double-click it.
      7. In the Confirm Data Source dialog box, click MS Excel Worksheets via DDE (*.xls), and then click OK.

        Note If you don't see MS Excel Worksheets via DDE (*.xls), select the Show all check box.

      8. In the Microsoft Office Excel dialog box, for Named or cell range, select the cell range or worksheet that contains the information that you want to merge, and then click OK.

        Note To prevent being prompted every time you open a data file, you can turn off the Confirm conversion at Open option after you have connected to the worksheet.

    • If you don't have a data file yet, click Type a new list, and then use the form that opens to create your list. The list is saved as a database (.mdb) file that you can reuse.

Note If you installed Microsoft Office system (instead of installing Microsoft Word by itself), you can also use Microsoft Query to construct a query and retrieve the data you want from an external data source .