MAIL MERGE DOCUMENTS

INTRODUCTION

• Creating a Mail Merge Document
• Running Your Letters
• Appendix: Insert Switch Formatting

CREATING A MAIL MERGE DOCUMENT

Start with a view.

We recommend creating a view for each Mail Merge document or letter that you will be sending. This step will only need to be done once for each letter. After the initial view is created, you can save it and use it again and again.

NOTE: Remember to create the view (or use an existing view) on the correct Entity so you can select all the data that you may need. For example, if you are sending gift thank you letters, and you want to include the Fund Name, you will need to build that view from the Gift Payments entity. If you started on the Gift entity, you won’t have access to the information that is only on the Gift Payment record.

Once you’ve decided which Entity you will create the view on, you will need to decide on the criteria to pull the records needed for your letters. Remember, you can always start from a saved view that already has some or most of the criteria that you will be needing.

If there isn’t a saved view with the criteria that you need, you will have to build your own. Remember that criteria are used to filter your data for the specific records that you will need for your letters. You’ll Edit Columns to select the fields you will want to merge into your letter or document.

Once you have the view created, we recommend naming it the same name as the letter or document you will be merging the information to in Microsoft Word, for example – Gift Thank You Letters or Scholarship Award Letters. This will save your view as a personal view.


Next, you will want to Edit Columns in your view to add the fields you will need to merge, and to remove those that you won’t be using. You can also reorder them if you like to make it easier for viewing and selecting merge fields when working in Microsoft Word. Columns can be moved by clicking and dragging to the order needed.



(For more information on personalizing views, please see our “Managing Views” knowledge article, found on the GOsupport portal.)


Since the view you just created is a personal view, you may also want to share it with team members who will be may also be working on the merged documents or letters.

EXPORT YOUR VIEW

• Once the Excel document is downloaded to your device. Open it and make sure you take it out of the “Read Only” format and save it. It will not merge into Word if you don’t complete this step. You may receive the following error when you open it. If so, press ‘OK.’

(You may need to "allow macros," which can be done through MS Word's Trust Center)

• Save the Excel spreadsheet with the same name as your view, for example, “GiftThankYouLetter.xlxs.” By keeping the Excel spreadsheet name the same each time you create it, the data source will remain the same in your related Word mail merge document, so you won’t have to select a data source each time you create letters or documents.
• It is also best practice to keep your Word and Excel documents in the same location on your device each time you run the mail merge so that it processes quickly and easily without you having to locate where the documents and spreadsheets are stored each time you run them.

CREATING YOUR MAIL MERGE DOCUMENT IN WORD

RUNNING YOUR LETTERS

APPENDIX: INSERT SWITCH FORMATTING

The SWITCH function in Microsoft allows you to find a value and convert it to the format that you would like to show in your documents and letters. For example, if your Excel value for currency shows as 1000, it will automatically convert it to $1,000.00 in the letter or document on merge when you insert specific code. When merging data created in akoyaGO from Excel to Word, you will need to add Switch Formatting to two key fields: dates and currency.

The formulas to use are: