USING MAIL MERGE TO CREATE DOCUMENTS HAVING IMAGES

Until recently mail merge was one of those useless features I truly thought Microsoft had added to its long list of enterprise use.

I found out that I could create one document as in a template and generate 300 documents on the fly thanks to mail merge.

A case in view is a school having 300 students and wants to create certificates of completion for each student.

Under traditional circumstance the head teacher would ask the secretary to type a document with a name field and year, this document would be closely guarded as it has to be reused every year.

Thanks to Mail Merge the secretary will gladly take on the role to upgrade the certificate and make it first class and assuming the secretary has learnt over time the important of storing all information and photos patenting students in one place say using MS Access or Excel. All she has to do now is export the needed records to say an excel file of another Access table.

Now all this should take a couple of minutes to accomplish.

Excite about showing her prowess she would then fire up here mail merge prudently import the newly created data source. Next she would insert the merged fields as expected, however for one slight challenge she would need to reevaluate her skills.

Inserting images using mail merge is simple but very complicated but if you follow along you will do just fine, assuming that your document is saved using .doc extension

Procedure

1. Move all the images into one folder
2.  Rename all the images using a unique name, we recommend you use numbers 1,…..
3. Open a the document you want the images in
4. Select mailing
5. Select Select Recipients
6. Select Type New List
7. Customise columns
8. Rename the columns as needed, include a column that holds a file name in step 2
9. Enter your information
10. Save your information in a place where it can easily be accessed.
11. Select mailing
12. Select Select Recipients
13. Select Use existing List
14. Place the cursor where you want to position your image.
15. Select Insert
16. Select Picture
17. Locate the image you want to insert
18. Do not press the Insert button at the bottom of the Insert Picture dialog box as usual after selecting the file. Instead, press the little triangle on the right edge of that button to get a three-line menu, and click “Link to File.” But don’t format the picture yet.
19. Press Alt + F9  to see something like { INCLUDEPICTURE "c:\\Users\\staff\\pictures\\John.jpg" \*MERGEFORMAT \d }
20. Delete the file name so you have something like { INCLUDEPICTURE "c:\\Users\\staff\\pictures\\.jpg" \*MERGEFORMAT \d }
21. Select mailing
22. Select Insert Merge Field
23. Select the special column you create in step 8, such that you have something like { INCLUDEPICTURE "c:\\Users\\staff\\pictures\\{ MERGEFIELD image }.jpg" \*MERGEFORMAT \d }
24. Press Alt + F9
25. Select mailing
26. Select Finish & Merge
27. Select Edit Individual Documents
28. In the merged document press Ctrl + A then press F9

Important notes:

If the images don’t display try:

·         Right click on any image that’s part of the images you are going to use select properties and copy the location.

o   Paste it  in place of c:\\Users\\staff\\pictures\\

·         Make sure you include \\ in all place as shown above

·         Make sure you didn’t skip step 28

·         Make sure the file names and the merged fields values are similar

Remember it takes 14 failed attempts to discover the error