A mail merge is a procedure in which you add names and addresses to mailing labels, envelopes, form letters, catalogs, e-mails, or faxes for mass distribution. You can begin a mail merge from either Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Word, and you complete it in Word, using either the Mail Merge Wizard or the Mail Merge toolbar. Note that you must use Word 2002 or later for the mail merge feature to work properly.
You can use your Outlook Contacts folder as the data source for the mail merge, providing the names and addresses that will be merged into the main document.
You can choose which contacts will be part of the mail merge in three ways:
Select contacts from the Contacts folder by clicking them while holding down the CTRL key.
Create a separate contacts folder and copy only the contacts you need to that folder.
Create a custom view of the Contacts folder. For example, you can create a view that contains only your contacts from a particular state/ province and then send a custom e-mail message to them only.
For more information about choosing the contacts to include in the mail merge, see Using contacts as a data source for a mail merge.
Once you decide which contacts to include, you can further specify which contact fields to include. For example, you might want First Name, Last Name, Street Address, and ZIP/ Postal code, but not Country/ Region.
When you start a mail merge from Outlook, the contacts you select are exported to a temporary mail merge source file, to a printer, or to an e-mail message, depending on what option you choose. You can save the temporary mail merge source file if you want to use the same contacts for future mail merges.
Note Personal distribution lists in the Contacts folder cannot be included in a mail merge. You do not have to remove the personal distribution lists from Contacts, however. Outlook will ignore them.