Anita has to send the same letter to all the different video suppliers listed in her spreadsheet, but it takes a long time to copy and paste each individual address into a brand new letter.

Instead, Anita uses the Mail Merge function in Microsoft Word, to create a template letter that automatically takes all the addresses from her spreadsheet and creates a copy of the letter for each supplier.

A mail merge can be used to create letters, mailing labels and envelopes, and the process takes 3 steps:

• Creating the document;
• Getting the data;
• Merging them together.

1. Creating the document

Using your formal letter as part of the template, open a blank Word document and select the Mail Merge or Letters and Mailings > Mail Merge Wizard from the Tools menu.

• Click the 'Create' button;
• Select the type of document you want - in this case, Form Letters;
• If you already have a blank document open, choose Active Window. If not, select New Main Document.

Each piece of data in your spreadsheet - surname, address, postcode etc - will be referred to as a 'field'. Your template letter will be made up of your these fields and the message text from your formal letter.

• Copy and paste the text from your formal letter into the blank document;
• Word provides a list of general fields, which you can match with the categories in your spreadsheet;
• Delete any fields you don't want included in your template letter by highlighting a field and clicking Remove Field Name;
• You can Add any new fields you want - most of the ones you need should be there;
• Select the data on your template letter that you want to replace and click on Insert Merge Field and select the field you want to enter (e.g. highlight 'Mr' on the letter and select <<Title>>);
• Word will automatically replace the text with the Merge Field Code - this must be inserted from the toolbar, it cannot just be typed in.