How does a mail merge work?
To perform a mail merge, you create an address list or a data source file. The data source file contains the information that changes with each merged copy of the publication. You must arrange the information in a table. Each column of the table contains one type of information (called a field), and each row of the table contains information for each record. Next, you create a publication. The dimensions of the publication determine the dimensions of the merged copies. Therefore, if you create a set of mailing labels, create a publication that is the size of one label. After you create both of these files, merge the data source and the publication. After you merge the files, you can insert placeholders (or field codes) into the publication. Placeholders tell Publisher where to insert the information from the data source file. The final step in performing a mail merge is to print the publication. You can print copies for all of the records or print only specific records. In each printed
