Lesson 3

Advanced Word
Processing Skills
Mail Merge
⇨ a feature that allows you to
create documents and combine or
merge them with another
document or data file
Two Components of Mail Merge
1. Form Document
⇨ the document that contains the main body of the
message we want to convey or send.
The main body of the message is the part of the form document
that remains the same no matter whom send it to from among
the first.
Also included in the form of document is what we called place
holders, also referred to as data fields or merge fields.
In its simplest form, a form document is literally a “form” that
you fill out with individual information.
A common example of a form documents is your regular tax
form or application form.
2. List or Data File
⇨ includes the individual information or
data or the recipients information
This is where the individual information or data that needs to be
plugged in (merged) to form document is placed and maintained.
Best thing about mail merge feature is that allow data file to be
created from within the Microsoft Word application itself, or it gets
data from a file created in Microsoft Excel or other Data formats.
You can easily add, remove, modify, or exact your data more
efficiently by using other data managements applications like
Excel or Access and import them in Word during the mail merge
process.
Label Generation
Included in the mail merge feature on Microsoft Word is the
Label Generator. It just make sense that after you print out your
form letters, you will need to send it to individual recipients in
an envelope with the matching address printed directly on the
envelope or on mailing label to stick on.
Two essential components of creating a merged document are
present: the form document and data file.
All you need to do is select the correct or appropriate size for
the label of envelope and select the data file that contains the
address (data) to be printed. You can also preview your merged
labels before printing if you want to.
Steps in creating a simple mail merge:

1. Open Microsoft Word and start a new blank

document. You can use the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl+N after Microsoft has been loaded or opened.

2. On the Mailing tab, from the Start Mail Merge group,

choose Start Mail Merge⟶Letters.
3. Save your letter and name it “Sample Letter.”

4. Insert the fields you need in the letter (Name, Company,

Address Line 1, Address Line 2, Address Line 3, and Title). You
may want to make special markings on these fields as you are
typing it. Most common marking you can do is by typing it in
capital letters or ALL CAPS so you can easily identify them later.
5. Save the main document once more. You can use Ctrl+S to
quickly do this step.

6. On the Mailings tab in the Start Mail Merge group,

choose Select Recipients⟶Type a New List.

7. Click the Customize Columns button on the dialog box for the
New Address List.
8. Select field that you do not need then click the Delete button.
A confirmation dialog box appears.
9. Click Yes the confirmation dialog box. The dialog box closes,
and the unnecessary field disappears.
10. Repeat steps 8 and 9 for each field you do not need. After
removing the excess fields, the next step is to add the fields you
need.
11. To add a field that you need in your document, click Add
button.
12. Type the field name on the prompt inside a small Add Field
dialog box and click the OK button.
13. Repeat steps 11 and 12 for each new field you need in you
main document.
14. Click the OK button on the Customize Address List dialog box
to confirm your changes.
15. The New Address List dialog box will appear again ready for
you to type in your data.
16. Type the individual data from your list corresponding to
Name, Company, Address Line 1, Address Line 2, Address Line 3
and Title.
17. Press the Tab key each time to enter the next field.
18. To add a new record, press the Tab key after inputting the
last field. When you press Tab key on the last field in a record, a
new record is automatically created and added on the next line.
19. Repeat steps 16 through 18 you enter all the records you
want. Once you are done typing your data, click the OK button
on the Add New List dialog box to save your data. A special Save
Address List dialog box pops up, allowing you to save the
recipient list.
20. Type a name for the address list. Name it “Client List”
21. Click the Save button. You should be back on your main
document soon after.
22. Select a field placeholder (ALL CAPS) in the main
document.
23. Click the Insert Merge Field command button.
24. Choose the proper field to insert into your text. For example,
if you are replacing the text name in your document with a name
field, choose the Name Field from the Insert Merge Field menu.
The field is inserted into your document. Repeat steps 22
through 24 as necessary to stick all fields into your document.
25. Continue adding fields until the document is complete.
Repeat steps 22 through 24 as necessary to stick all fields into
your document.
26. Save the main document.
27. Choose Finish & Merge to edit, print, or send your merged
documents through email.
28. Or you may want to choose Preview Results to check your
work before you send it.
29. You should get a merged document close to this one:
 If you decide to print the document, the Merge to Printer
dialog box appears, from which you can choose records to print.
Choose All to print your entire document. Alternatively, you can
specify which records to print. Click OK. The traditional Print
dialog box appears. Click the OK button again to print your
documents.

30. Save and close your document.

Integrating Images and External Materials

Integrating or inserting pictures in your document is fun and it

improves the impression of your document. A common us of
inserting picture on a document is when you are creating a
document your resume. Though seemingly simple to do, your
knowledge on the different kinds of materials that you can
insert or integrate in a Word document and its characteristics
can help you create a more efficient, richer document not only in
content but also in physical form. A better understanding of the
physical form of your document as well as the different
materials you integrate in it would allow you to be more
efficient and versatile in using Microsoft Word.
Kinds of Materials

The illustrations group menu under the Insert tab showing the kinds of
materials you can integrate with word 2010.
Various Kinds of Materials in Microsoft Word

1. Pictures. Generally, these are electronic or digital pictures or

photographs you have save in any local storage device. There are three
commonly used types of pictures files. You can identify them by the
extension on their files name.
a. .JPG ⇨ This is pronounced as “jay-peg” and is the short from
for
.jpeg or Joint Photographic Experts Group. Like all the rest of the image
file extensions, it identifies the kind of data compression process that it
uses to make it more compatible and portable through the Internet.
This type of image file can support 16.7 million colors photographic
images. It does not support transparency and therefore, images of this
type can be difficult to integrate in terms of blending with other
b. .GIF ⟹ This stands for Graphics Interchange Format. This
type of image file is capable of displaying transparencies.
Therefor, it is good for blending with other materials or
elements in your document. It is capable of displaying simple
animation.
⟹ Not too useful on printed document but if you are
sending electronically or through email, or even post document
into a website , then this could be quite impressive.
⟹ support up to 256 colors so it good mostly on logos
and art decors with very limited, and generally solid colors.
⟹ Is much better logos, drawings, small text, black and
white images, or low –resolution files.
c. .PNG ⟹ This is pronounced as “ping”. It stands for
Portable Network Graphics.
⟹ It was built around the capabilities of
.GIF
⟹ Its development was basically for the purpose of
transporting images on the Internet at faster
rates.
⟹ can display 16 million colors, so image
quality for this image type is also remarkably
improve.
⟹ allows the control of the transparency level
or opacity of images
2. Clip Art. This is generally a .GIF type; line art drawings or images
used as generic representation for ideas and objects that you might
want to integrate in your document.

3. Shapes. These are printable objects or materials that you can

integrate in your document to enhances appearance or to allow you to
have some tools to use for composing and representing ideas or
messages.

4. Smart Art. These are predefined sets of different shapes grouped

together to form ideas that are organizational or structural in nature.
5. Chart. This is quite useful when you are preparing reports that
correlate and present data in a graphical manner. You can create charts
that can be integrated in your document either directly in Microsoft
Word or imported from internal files like Microsoft Excel.

6. Screenshot. Sometimes , creating reports or manuals for training or

procedures will require the integration of a more realistic image of
what you are discussing on your report or manual. Microsoft Word
even provides a snipping tool for your screen shots so you can select
and display only the part that exactly like to capture on your screen.
Image Placement
⇒The align, placement, width, and height attributes of the
image element are used to specify the placement and size of
images when generated to an output delivery format.
⇒The placement of the image on the output page or screen
is defined in the placement and align attributes. The placement
attribute can be set to inline (placing the image inline with the
text in the paragraph in which it is placed) or break (placing the
image in its own block, with space above and below it). The align
attribute has valid values of left, right, center and current. These
values specify how the image will be aligned on the page or
screen. The align attribute only has an effect if the placement is
set to break.
 ⇒To display the image in its own block, use the image
element independently of a paragraph element, set the
placement attribute to break, and the alignment to left, right, or
center.
⇒To display an image within a paragraph or other block
element, set the placement attribute to inline, and either omit
the align attribute or set it to current (to inherit the alignment
settings of the element in which the image is contained).
⇒The image element includes height and width attributes.
These attributes are used to store the intended display height
and width of the image in the output, expressed in one of a
variety of units, including pixels (px), centimetres (cm), points
(pt) and inches (in).
Different characteristics of the Text Wrapping.

1. In Line with Text.

This is the default setting for images that are inserted or
integrated in your document . It treats your image like a text font
with the bottom side totally aligned with the text line. This
settings is usually used when you need to place your image at
the beginning of a paragraph. When placed between texts in a
paragraph or sentence, it distorts the overall appearance and
arrangement of the texts in the paragraph because it will take
up the space it needs vertically, pushing whole lines of texts
upward.
2. Square
This setting allows the image you inserted to be placed
anywhere within the paragraph with the text going around the
image in a square pattern like a frame.

3. Tight
This is almost the same as the Square setting, but here the
text “hugs” or conforms to the general shape of the image. This
allows you to get a more creative effect on your document. This
setting can be achieved if you are using an image that supports
transparency like a .GIF or .PNG file.
4. Through
This setting allows the text on your document to flow
even tighter, taking the contours and shape of the image. Again,
this can be best used with a .GIF or .PNG type of image.

5. Top and Bottom

This setting pushes the texts away vertically to the top
and/or the bottom of the image so that the image occupies a
whole text line on its own.
6. Behind Text
This allows your image to be dragged and placed
anywhere on your document but with all the texts floating in
front of it. It effectively makes your image look like a
background.

7. In Front of Text
As it suggests, this setting allow your image to be
placed right on top of the text as if your image was dropped right
on it. That means whatever part of the text you placed the image
on, it will be covered by the image.