Mail merge from Excel to Word labels

Microsoft Excel can be a powerful resource for managing all sorts of data, but it’s particularly useful for keeping track of your business contacts. Having all of your contacts or potential leads in a spreadsheet helps you organize and manage their information, and makes for a convenient place to keep track of when and how often you’ve contacted them.

Table of Contents Show

Understanding the label mail merge process in Word
Step 1: Start the merge and specify the main document as labels
Step 2: Select the source Excel file containing the data set
Step 3: Insert fields from the source file in the main document in Word
Step 4: Update the labels
Step 5: Format the labels
Step 6: Select specific recipients or filter the recipient list (optional)
Step 7: Preview the results (optional)
Step 8: Run the mail merge to create a new file or print the labels

Creating a contact list in this way makes it convenient for reaching out to multiple contacts at one time. Let’s say you want to send some of your contacts a follow-up mailer. By following the steps below, you can print labels from Excel for multiple contacts directly in Microsoft Word; a process that would otherwise require creating multiple documents and typing up repetitive information.

All you have to do is import Excel addresses into Word labels using the Mail Merge feature. Here’s how you do it.

First, you must create a properly formatted contact list in an Excel spreadsheet. You might have this already, but if you don’t, begin by creating a series of columns that will contain your contacts' information, with each column’s first cell containing a heading to label the corresponding data below.

Make sure you create a heading and column for each piece of contact information you will want to “merge” over onto your Word labels. For a mailing label, this would include basic contact information, such as the following:

First Name.
Last Name.
Street Address.
City.
State.
ZIP Code.

Once your headings are set, enter the corresponding contact information in the appropriate column below each corresponding heading for as many mail merge labels from Excel that you want.

Before you can import Excel addresses into Word labels, if you haven’t done so already, make sure that you have enabled the option to convert Word to Excel documents and vice versa.

To do so, go to File > Options > Advanced > General, and select the C*onfirm File Format Conversation* on Open option. This will automatically convert any Excel formatting into the proper Word formatting when you import mail merge labels from Excel.

Now, in a new Word document, locate the Mailings tab and select the Start Mail Merge option. From there, click Labels. Once on the Labels screen, select the appropriate Label type and product number that matches the label you want from the Label Vendors box.

Alternatively, you can create your own custom label with your own custom dimensions by clicking New Label. When you create labels from Excel, you can also add signifiers like a return address or a company logo from your company as well.

Once created, click OK, and then connect your Word doc to your Excel contact list.

Return to the Mailings tab of your Word doc, and select Mail Merge again. This time, go to Recipients, and click Use an Existing List. Find the Excel doc with your contact list and select it from the Select Data Source directory. Confirm that the source of your “merge” is your original contact list by clicking OK, and then click OK again to select the table with your contact list.

Go back to the Mailings tab. Under the Write & Insert Fields group, click Address Block. Confirm that your headings in your Excel spreadsheet match the fields required by the label you selected, then click Match Fields. These fields are placeholders that will substitute for the information from your contact list once you perform the mail merge.

If there are incorrect matches, you can use the drop-down arrow next to whichever field is unmatched, to match it to the corresponding correct choice. You should be able to select the correct heading from your contact list to fit each field. If not, go back to the your original list in Excel and edit your headings. When everything is selected and matched up, confirm your pick with the OK button to close the box, and choose Update Labels in the Write & Insert Fields section.

Now that the labels have been updated to correspond to the proper merge fields, it's time to merge Excel to Word labels. Word will now print labels from Excel for every contact on your contact list.

Before you create labels from Excel, you can select the Preview Results option from the Mailings tab to look over each individual label before you finalize the merge and print the entire selection. Review a few label*s* to make sure that they are formatted correctly; or, you can be judicious and review all of them.

Once you’ve reviewed or have chosen to s*kip reviewing*, select the Finish & Merge option from the Mailings tab. From there, you can edit individuals labels or you can decide to print. If everything looks good, select Print Documents to print your labels. This is the last step to import Excel addresses into word labels, and it creates a new document, where your customized labels will be saved, should you need to reach the same contacts again in the future.

You don't need to use Mail Merge only for label creation. In addition to creating customized shipping labels, you may want to send your contacts customized messages, too. Using the Mail Merge feature, you can create all kinds of customized letters, envelopes, emails, and directories.

To do this, create a n_ew Word document and return to the Mailings tab. Select the option you would like to create, from the Start Mail Merge box, and repeat the steps above to merge your contact list in Excel with whatever_ the new document is. Then, begin to create the document in question.

When sending customized communications to your contacts, you may want to include a customized merge field inside the body of the document in question. Besides the ability to add a customized Address Block or Greeting Line, you can also insert a custom merge field. This could be anything from a contact's name to a customized sentenc*e* as to how you met that contact – but it must be part of your contact list in Excel, with a corresponding heading to be included in a merge.

To insert one of these custom merge fields, go to the Mailings tab, and then to the Write & Insert Field_s section. Click Insert Merge Field. You will be asked to choose a column heading from your contact list, so select the corresponding heading you wish to merge, and click Insert._

When you have added every custom merge field you want included in your letter, go back to the Mailings tab. Preview results to review that all of your custom fields will be merged correctly and make sense in the context of the document. Then, select Finish & Merge when you are ready to create and print your new customized messages.

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated January 9, 2021

Applies to: Microsoft® Word® 2013, 2016, 2019 and 365 (Windows)

You can create labels in Microsoft Word by running a mail merge and using data in Excel. This is typically used to generate and print bulk mailing labels for names and addresses of clients or other contacts. You'll need to create a main document for the labels in Word and then connect to a data set or list in an Excel worksheet (although you can use other data sources). When you run the mail merge, you can create a new merged file with a label for each contact or merge directly to a printer.

Typically, labels are purchased in sheets that you place in the tray or document feeder of your printer and a product code is printed on the label packaging. Address labels are often called mailing labels or shipping labels.

Recommended article: How to Use Mail Merge in Word for Form Letters

Do you want to learn more about Word? Check out our virtual classroom or live classroom Word courses >

Understanding the label mail merge process in Word

There are 8 steps in the Word mail merge process for mailing or address labels:

In Word, start the merge and specify the main document for labels. You'll be prompted to specify the type and / or size of labels you want to generate.
Select the Excel source workbook containing the data set with names and addresses. Microsoft refers to a data set or database as a list. You would create the Excel source file before you begin the mail merge process.
In Word, insert fields into the first cell of the table (which would be the first label). This table is created automatically by Word.
Update or propagate the other labels on the sheet.
Format the main label document (such as changing font and size).
Select specific recipients or filter the recipient list (optional).
Preview the merged labels (optional).
Run the mail merge.

During the mail merge process, fields are inserted into the main document and appear in carets (such as <<Firstname>>). By default, when you click in a field, it is displayed with grey shading. When you run the merge, the fields are replaced by data from the source Excel file.

In this article, we'll be using the Mailings tab in the Ribbon to set up and run a mail merge (not the Mail Merge Wizard).

Step 1: Start the merge and specify the main document as labels

The first step is to start the merge using Start Mail Merge on the Mailings tab in the Ribbon:

To start the merge and specify the main document for labels:

Create a new blank Word document.
Click the Mailings tab in the Ribbon and then click Start Mail Merge in the Start Mail Merge group.
From the drop-down menu, select Labels. A dialog box appears.
Select the product type and then the label code (which is printed on the label packaging). You may also select New Label and then enter a custom name and size.
Click OK. Word creates a table in the main document. Next Record appears in each label cell to prompt Word to move to the next record in the data source.
If table gridlines are not displayed, click in the table and click the Table Tools Layout tab or Table Layout tab (on the right side of the Ribbon) and click View Gridlines in the Table Group.

In the following example, Avery US letter was selected as the Label vendor with Avery 5163 address or shipping labels:

Step 2: Select the source Excel file containing the data set

The next step is to connect to an Excel source file containing a list of names and addresses using Select Recipients. In the Excel worksheet, the first row must contain field names such as FirstName, LastName, Company, Address and so on. There should be no blank rows in the data set.

Select Recipients appears on the Mailings tab in the Ribbon in the Start Mail Merge group as follows:

In the following Excel worksheet, note that the field names are in the first row of the sheet being used a source:

To select a Microsoft Excel source file containing a worksheet with names and addresses for the labels:

In the main Word document, click the Mailings tab in the Ribbon and then click Select Recipients in the Start Mail Merge group. A dialog box appears.
Click Use an Existing List from the drop-down menu. A dialog box appears.
Navigate to the Excel file containing the names and addresses you want to use as the source.
Double-click the Excel file. A dialog box appears.
Ensure First row of data contains column headers is checked.
Click the Excel worksheet containing the data you wish to use.
Click OK.

The following dialog box appears when you select an Excel file as the source for a merge:

Step 3: Insert fields from the source file in the main document in Word

Once you have connected to a source file, you can insert fields into the main document (which contains a table for the labels). You have the option of using a special Word field called Address Block or inserting individual fields.

Address Block appears as follows in the Ribbon:

To insert the Address Block field:

Click in the first cell of the table in the main document where you want to insert the recipient name and address.
Click the Mailings tab in the Ribbon and select Address Block in the Write & Insert Fields group. A dialog box appears. Word will display an address based on the source data.
In the samples on the left, select the address sample you prefer.
Check or uncheck other options if necessary.
Click OK. Word inserts an Address Block field into the main document.

In the Address Block dialog box, select a sample address in the area on the left:

To insert fields individually:

Click in the first cell of the table in the main document where you want to insert the recipient name and address.
Click the Mailings tab in the Ribbon and select Insert Merge Field in the Write & Insert Fields group.
From the drop-down menu, select the field you want to insert.
Press the spacebar, type text or press Enter if necessary.
Repeat for other fields you want to insert.

Step 4: Update the labels

To populate all of the labels in the table:

Click in the table in the main document.
Click the Mailings tab in the Ribbon and then select Update Labels or Propogate Labels in the Write & Insert group. Word will insert the fields in all label cells and include <<Next Record>> to go to the next record in the source data.

Step 5: Format the labels

You may need to apply formatting to the labels such as changing the font and size, changing alignment, and adjusting paragraph spacing.

Below is a sample main document for address labels (Avery US Letter 5163 shipping labels):

Step 6: Select specific recipients or filter the recipient list (optional)

You have the option of choosing specific recipients or filtering the recipient list if you don't want to create labels for all contacts in the data source.

To choose specific contacts:

In the the main document in Word, click the Mailings tab in the Ribbon and then click Edit Recipient List in the Start Mail Merge group. A dialog box appears.
Uncheck the check boxes beside the recipients you do not wish to include in the mail merge.
Click OK.

To filter the source list:

In the the main document in Word, click the Mailings tab in the Ribbon and then click Edit Recipient List in the Start Mail Merge group. A dialog box appears.
Click Filter. A dialog box appears.
Select / enter the desired filtering options.
Click OK.

For example, below is a filter to display records from Toronto:

To remove the filter, repeat the process, but click Clear All in the Filter and Sort dialog box.

Step 7: Preview the results (optional)

Before you run the mail merge, to preview the results:

In the the main document in Word, click the Mailings tab in the Ribbon and then click Preview Results in the Preview Results group.
Click the arrows in the Preview Results group to go to the next or previous page.
Click Preview Results to view the fields again.

Step 8: Run the mail merge to create a new file or print the labels

The final step is to run the merge. You can either create a new merged document or merge directly to a printer.

To run the mail merge and create a new merged label document:

In the the main document in Word, click the Mailings tab in the Ribbon and then click Finish & Merge in the Finish group. A drop-down menu appears.
Click Edit Individual Documents. A dialog box appears.
Click Current Record or enter a selected range if necessary.
Click OK. Word creates a new merged document that you can edit, print and save.

The following dialog box appears when you select Edit individual documents:

To run the mail merge and print the merged file:

In the the main document in Word, click the Mailings tab in the Ribbon and then click Finish & Merge in the Finish group. A drop-down menu appears.
Select Print Documents. A dialog box appears.
Click Current Record or enter a selected range if necessary.
Click OK. A dialog box appears.
Select the desired printer and other printer options.
Click OK.

The following dialog box appears when you select Print Documents:

You will typically want to save the main document and the source file. If you save the merged file, you will have a record of the labels that were created.