Mailing list from Excel

How to Create Mailing Labels in Word from an Excel List

• Marshall Gunnell

  @bacon_gritz

You may be using Microsoft Excel to organize a mailing list neatly. However, when you get ready to print mailing labels, youll need to use mail merge to create them in Word from your Excel list. Heres how.

Step One: Prepare your Mailing List

If you have already created a mailing list in Excel, then you can safely skip this test. If you havent created the list yet, despite Excels lack of the mailing label function, we still highly recommend you use Excel since its better for organizing and maintaining data than using a Word table.

The first thing you need to do is create a column header respective to the data that goes in each column. Place those headers in the first row of each column.

Which headers you include depends on which information you plan to use in the mailing labels. Titles are always nice, but its important that you know which title a person goes by before creating the labels. Also, if your list is for companies and not individual people, you can omit the First Name and Last Name header and just go with Company Name instead. To properly illustrate the steps, well go with a personal mailing list in this example. Our list will include the following headers:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Street Address
• City
• State
• ZIP Code

This is the standard information youll find on mailing labels. You can even insert images in the mailing labels if you want, but that step would come later in Word.

RELATED: How to Create and Print Labels in Word

Once youve finished creating the headers, go ahead and input the data. Once youre finished, your list should look something like this:

Go ahead and save your list and lets head over to Microsoft Word.

Step Two: Set Up Labels in Word

Open up a blank Word document. Next, head over to the Mailings tab and select Start Mail Merge.

In the drop-down menu that appears, select Labels.

The Label Options window will appear. Here, you can select your label brand and product number. Once finished, click OK.

Your label outlines will now appear in Word.

Note: If your label outlines arent showing, go to Design > Borders, and select View Gridlines.

Step Three: Connect your Worksheet to Words Labels

Before you can transfer the data from Excel to your labels in Word, you must connect the two. Back in the Mailings tab in the Word document, select the Select Recipients option.

A drop-down menu will appear. Select Use an Existing List.

Windows File Explorer will appear. Use it to locate and select your mailing list file. With the file selected, click Open.

The Select Table window will appear. If you have multiple sheets in your workbook, theyll appear here. Select the one containing your list. Make sure to enable the First row of data contains column headers option if its not already and then click OK.

Your labels are now connected with your worksheet.

Step Four: Add Mail Merge Fields to the Labels

Now its time to add your mail merge fields in Words labels. Select the first label, switch to the Mailings tab, and then click Address Block.

In the Insert Address Block window that appears, click the Match Fields button.

The Match Fields window will appear. In the Required for Address Block group, make sure each setting matches the column in your workbook. For example, First Name should match with First Name, and so on. Once youve confirmed everything is set properly, click OK.

Back at the Insert Address Block window, check out the preview to make sure everything looks good and then click OK.

will now appear in your first label.

Head back over to the Mailings tab and then click Update Labels.

Once selected, should appear in every label.

Now, youre now ready to perform the mail merge.

Step Five: Performing the Mail Merge

Now to watch the magic happen. On the Mailings tab, click Finish & Merge.

From the drop-down menu that appears, select Edit Individual Documents.

The Merge to New Document window will appear. Select All and then click OK.

Your list from Excel will now be merged into the labels in Word.

All thats left to do now is print out your labelsand send out your mail!