Data sources you can use for a mail merge

You can retrieve contact information directly from your Outlook Contact List.

You can create a simple Office Address List during the mail merge, and access it for later use. This is best for small, simple lists that you don't use frequently.

With Excel, you can select data from any worksheet or named range within a workbook. With Access, you can select data from any table or query defined in the database.

You can use:

• A data source you connect to by using the Data Connection Wizard.
• Files from single-tier, file-based database programs for which you have installed an OLE-DB provider or ODBC driver (a number of which are included with Microsoft Office).

You can access these sources or start the Data Connection Wizard by clicking New Source in the Select Data Source dialog box.

You can use an HTML file that has a single table. The first row of the table must contain column names and the other rows must contain data.

• A Microsoft Outlook Address Book.
• A Microsoft Schedule+ 7.0 Contact List.
• The Personal Address Book that you created for use with Microsoft Exchange Server.
• Any similar address lists that were created with a MAPI-compatible messaging system, such as Microsoft Outlook.

You can use a Word document as a data source. The document should contain a single table. The first row of the table must contain headings, and the other rows must contain the records you want to merge. You can also use a header source as a data source.

You can use any text file that has data fields separated (or delimited) by tab characters or commas and data records separated by paragraph marks.