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Select a different data source for a main document

Whether you're re-opening a main document that you worked on in a previous Microsoft Word session, or you are currently in the process of creating a mail merge, you can a different data source.

1. If the main document is not already open, open it.
2. If the Mail Merge task pane is not displayed, point to Letters and Mailings on the Tools menu, and then click Mail Merge.
3. Go to step 3 of the task pane (Select recipients) by clicking Next.
4. Click Select a different list.
5. In the Select Data Source dialog box, locate and select the data source you want, and then click Open.

   The list of recipients appears in the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box, where you can refine the list of recipients.

   How?

   1. Do one of the following:

      Use the check boxes to designate recipients

      This method is most useful if your list is short.

      • Select the check boxes next to the recipients you want to include, and clear the ones next to the recipients you want to exclude.

      Tip

      If you know you want to include most of the list in your merge, clicking Select All first makes it easy to clear particular records. Similarly, if you want to include only a few records in the list, click Clear All, and then select the records you want.

      Sort items in the list

      This is useful if you want to see items in alphabetical or numeric order.

      • Click the column heading of the item you want to sort by. For example, if you want to display the list alphabetically by last name, click the Last Name column heading.

      Filter items in the list

      This is useful if the list contains records that you know you don't want to see or include in the merge. Once you've filtered the list, you can use the check boxes to include and exclude records as described in the previous section.

      1. Click the arrow next to the column heading of the item you want to filter by.
      2. Click any of the following:
         • (Blanks) displays all the records in which the corresponding field is blank.
         • (Nonblanks) displays all the records in which the corresponding field contains information.
         • If your data source contains records that share the same information, and there are ten or fewer unique values in the column, you can filter by specific information. For example, if there are multiple addresses that list Australia as the country/region, you can filter on Australia.

         The Mail Merge Recipients dialog box displays only the designated records. To display all the records again, click (All).

   2. Click OK to return to the Mail Merge task pane. Microsoft Word will use the recipients you designated for the merge.

   Tips

   • For advanced sorting and filtering, click the arrow next to any column name, and then click (Advanced). Use the Filter Records and Sort Records tabs to set up the sorting or filtering query you want.
   • If you have installed address validation software, you can click Validate in the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box to validate your recipients' addresses.