FAQ 320: Can I do a mail merge with Microsoft Word?

[William]

Yes! ClinicOffice has the ability to do a mail merge with its own internal Word Processor (which may be sufficient for your needs) but you can also do a mail merge using the more advance features of MS Word, if you wish. This article explains how to do a mail merge with MS Word.

Microsoft state on their website that there are 4 steps to performing a mail-merge with MS Word. These are:-

1) Choose a document type and main document
2) Connect to a data file and select records
3) Add fields to the main document
4) Preview the merge and then complete it

ClinicOffice v4 is involved in the second step. Please follow the instructions below to see how to create a 'data file' from COv4 which MS Word can work with.

* Go to the Patient Database
* Perfrom a search so that the patient's you wish to work with are visible on the screen (if you want to view all patients, simply press the F7 button on your keyboard)
* Right-click on the grid
* Go to Export Grid then click on Export To Excel
* Select the file name and location for saving the Excel file
* Now click Save

The file that we have just saved can now been used in the Word mail merge process.

As regards the actual mail-merge process itself, Microsoft have provided a full step-by-step guide. Please click here to see this article.

If you want to print address labels, then we highly recommend downloading the AVERY Wizard, a FREE utility which is available from the Avery website. It makes the mail-merging process onto labels really easy. Click here to see this article.