Free Software Magazine collects several years of experience into an article detailing how to Mail Merge in OpenOffice.org.

“In OOo there are lots of different ways to do mail merge. It took some trial-and-error to find the best methods for us, and that is what I will be describing here. The first choice to make is database format… I ran across a suggestion to use dBASE files, which have been the perfect solution.”

While writing the letter, you’ll enter variables that are custom-filled for each recipient.

“You may either type your entire letter first and then add the fields to be merged, or you may add the fields as you go. There are (at least) two ways to add fields. Using View→Data Sources, you may click on a column header (field name) and drag it to the letter in the spot where you want the field… The other method is to place your cursor where you want the field, and go to Insert→Fields→Other…, which opens the Fields dialog box (see figure 2). Go to the Database tab, and click on “Mail merge fields” on the left, then open up your table on the right and select the desired field.”

The second page in the article covers using mail merge to print envelopes, a particularly tricky but important task.

The third page covers printing labels from a mail merge, which is what I use mail merge for most frequently.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 10:44 am and is filed under Free Culture, How-to, OpenOffice.org. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.