MS Office

Mail Merge is used to create form letters, mailing labels, or envelopes. One document is the Data Document, which contains all of the names, addresses, or other variable information. This data is merged with the Main Document, resulting in a third document, which has as many sections as there are records in the Data Document.

Click here to download a Word document that includes a simple Mail Merge exercise using the Word 2000 Mail Merge Helper.

Note: Mail Merge in Word XP (2002) and Word 2003 has some important changes and new features. The most obvious include the new Mail Merge Wizard and a different method of data exchange, which affects the formatting of the fields in the merged document. Some helpful information on restoring the Mail Merge Helper and using the Word 2000 data exchange method appear at the end of this section, but if you are using Word 2003, you should read through all of the online Help topics on Mail Merge.

To create a set of merge documents, choose Mail Merge from the Tools menu (Word XP/2003 users: choose Letters and Mailings from the Tools menu first). This will start the Mail Merge Helper, which will guide you through the three-step process:

1. Create the Main Document (Form Letter, Mailing Label, or Envelope).

2. Specify a Data Source (create from scratch or use an existing document, which is usually a Word table or an Excel spreadsheet).

3. Merge the Data Source with the Main Document.

Note: Merge Documents is a command on the Tools menu that allows you to merge comments and changes from several reviewers into one document. This command is related to the Track Changes feature and has nothing to do with Mail Merge.

Note: Word XP and Word 2003 use a new feature called the Mail Merge Wizard to guide you through the merge process. If you want to try the Mail Merge Wizard in Word XP/2003, choose Mail Merge Wizard from the Letters and Mailings menu. The directions appear in the task pane on the right side of the screen. If you prefer the Word 2000 Mail Merge Helper, you can be add it to the Word XP/2003 Tools menu using the Customize feature.

The Word Help on this topic is a little confusing. A watermark is a picture inserted in the header, then formatted so that it appears as a faint background image behind the text in the document. To insert a watermark:

1. Go to the Zoom box on the standard toolbar or the Zoom item on the View menu and reduce the view to 50% (this just makes things easier to see).

OPTIONAL: If you only want the watermark on the first page, choose Page Setup from the File menu, then click on the Layout tab. Under Headers and Footers, check the Different first page checkbox.

2. Choose Headers and Footers from the View menu.

3. Insert the graphic for your watermark (see How do I put a picture in my document?).

4. The Picture toolbar should appear on your screen. If you don't see it, click once on the picture you just inserted. Your graphic must remain selected for the remaining steps.

5. On the Picture toolbar, click on the Image Control button, then select Watermark (this will make the graphic look washed out).

OPTIONAL: You can convert the graphic to grayscale by selecting Grayscale on the Image Control menu. If you want to adjust the contrast or brightness, there are buttons on the Picture toolbar. If want to apply both the Watermark and the Grayscale attribute, you have to click OK to apply the first one, then go back into

6. CRUCIAL STEP: On the Picture toolbar, click on the Text Wrapping button and select Behind Text. If you don't do this, you get a big graphic in the header that doesn't work as a watermark (this step is not clear in the Word Help topic on watermarks).

7. Now, you can resize the graphic, drag it around on the page, or any other picture formatting you want to do.

8. Close the Header and Footer view by clicking on the Close button on the Header and Footer toolbar. If your graphic is not visible on the screen, choose Print Layout from the View menu. You can now edit your document as usual.

Word has a feature that will generate a table of contents for your document. However, you must format your chapter or section headings with certain "heading styles" that Word uses to determine the text for the table of contents entry, as well as the page number where that section or chapter begins. To mark a chapter or section heading so it will appear in your table of contents:

1. Select the chapter or section heading.

2. Choose Heading 1 from the Styles list on the Formatting toolbar.

For subheadings, choose Heading 2, Heading 3, etc.

When you have finished typing your document, you can generate your table of contents:

1. Place the cursor where you want to insert the table of contents.

2. Choose Index and Tables (or Reference, then Index and Tables) from the Insert menu

3. Select Table of Contents tab, then and select the style you want.

4. Choose OK to insert the table of contents into your document.

If you edit your document after creating the table of contents, you will have to update it:

1. Click to the left of the table of contents you want to update.

2. Press F9.

Note: When you update the table of contents, any text or formatting you added to the finished index or table is lost.

The easiest way is to open the chart in Excel, copy it, then paste it into your Word document. You may have to resize the chart after you get it into Word. To resize the chart:

1. Choose Object from the Format menu.

2. The Format Object dialog box has Size tab.

The Layout tab has options for setting the flow of text around the chart.

You can also insert the chart as a linked or embedded object. A linked chart stores the data in the original Excel worksheet. If you edit the spreadsheet, the changes are reflected in the linked chart in Word. An embedded chart is stored in the Word document. To create a linked or embedded chart:

1. Choose Object from the Insert menu.

2. Click the Create from File tab.

3. Enter the file name, or use the Browse button to locate the file. An embedded object is created if you don't check the Link to file check box.

When you create an embedded object from an existing Microsoft Excel workbook, the entire workbook is inserted into your document. The document displays only one worksheet at a time. To display a different worksheet, double-click the Microsoft Excel object, and then click a different worksheet.

Yes. Word has a Save as Web Page command on the File menu. In addition, there is an Insert Hyperlink button on the Standard toolbar, as well as two additional toolbars for the web: Web and Web Tools. To activate these toolbars, choose Toolbars from the View menu. If you save a Word document as a web page, Word includes XML (Extensible Markup Language) tags, which enhances the format of the web page, but may cause problems with some web browsers (pages created with Word probably work best when viewed with the current version of Microsoft Internet Explorer).

You can download an HTML filter for Word 2000 that will allow you to Export as Compact HTML (compact HTML removes most of the XML tags). When you save a Word document as a web page, the formatting is converted into the appropriate HTML code (although some formatting will not be displayed on the web page exactly as it appeared in Word).

NOTE: The Save as HTML command in Word 97 creates much cleaner HTML than the later versions of Word. If you own a copy, you can install it along with a newer version on one machine: Just do a custom install of Word 97 and place it in a unique directory. If you run Word 97, the newer version of Word will quickly "reinstall" itself next time you start it.

Word is usually setup to open WordPerfect 5.1 files without doing anything special. You may have to change the Files of type setting in the Open dialog box to All Files (*.*), as Word is usually set to look for Word Documents (*.doc). There are more text converters and graphics filters on the Office install CD, including one for WordPerfect 6.x (WordPerfect 6/7/8/9 use the same file format). WordPerfect files may include WordPerfect Graphics files, so you should also install the WordPerfect Graphics Filters. To install text converters and graphics filters for WordPerfect:

1. Insert your Office or Word CD #1.

2. Setup may start automatically when you insert the CD; if not, choose Start > Run > Browse (on the Windows Taskbar) then locate the CD and double-click on setup.exe.

3. Choose Add or Remove Features.

If you're not familiar with the Microsoft Office install/update procedure, click the Help button before you go on to the next step and read the Help screen.

4. Open the Converters and Filters list.

5. Open the Text Converters list.

6. Choose WordPerfect 6.x Converter, and select Run from My Computer.

7. Open the Graphics Filters list.

8. Choose WordPerfect Graphics Filters, and select Run from My Computer.

9. Click on the Update Now button.

You can also install more text converters and graphics filters by choosing the items you want from the Text Converters and Graphics Filters lists before you click the Update Now button. If you want to simply install all of the available text converters and graphics filters, choose Run from My Computer at step 4 above, instead of selecting particular items from the lists.

Word calls this feature "Click and Type". All it does is automatically insert enough blank paragraphs and possibly a tab to position the insertion point, then you can start typing or insert a graphic. To use Click and Type:

1. Make sure that Click and Type is turned on: Choose Options from the Tools menu, click the Edit tab, select the Enable click and type check box, and then click OK.

2. Switch to Print Layout view or Web Layout (on the View menu or use the little toolbar in the lower left corner of the screen).

3. In the document, move the pointer to a blank area where you want to insert text, graphics, or a table.

4. Click to enable the Click and Type pointer.

5. The pointer shape indicates how the item will be aligned (left, center, or right, depending on where you place the pointer).

6. Double-click, and then start typing text or insert an item as usual.

If you choose Tools from the Options menu, then click on the General tab, you can select two check boxes that will help you learn the equivalent Word commands. Help for WordPerfect users displays instructions or demonstrates a Word equivalent when you press a WordPerfect for DOS key combination. Navigation keys for WordPerfect users changes the function of Page Up, Page Down, Down Arrow, Home, End, and Esc to their WordPerfect equivalents. Note: If you did not install WordPerfect Help when you installed Word, Word will ask you for your install CD the first time you try a WordPerfect key combination.

Note: If you are an experienced Word user, you may find Word's behavior annoying if you enable either of these features. For example, if you press the Delete key to delete a block of text, you have to confirm the delete by pressing the Y key (similar to what happens in WordPerfect when you delete a block of text).