In Outlook 2000 and earlier for Windows, how do I use information in my Contacts folder to print envelopes for mailing?

The following directions apply to versions of Office for Windows prior to Office XP. For instructions for Office XP, see Using Microsoft Office XP or 2003, how do I use information in my Contacts folder to print envelopes for mailing?

In versions of Office prior to XP, to use information from your Contacts folder to print mailing envelopes, you will have to follow a multi-step process using three Microsoft programs: Outlook, Access, and Word.

Selecting Contacts

Open Outlook and click your Contacts folder (or the folder that contains the contacts that you want to use). Make a subfolder within your Contacts folder to hold these contacts. To do so, see In Microsoft Outlook, how can I make additional folders?

Once your have created the subfolder into which you'll copy your chosen contacts, you need to select the contacts. There are two ways to do this:

• Select each contact in the source folder(s) that you want to copy, and drag it into the newly created folder. If you want to copy a group of contacts, press the Ctrl key on the keyboard, select each contact that you wish to copy, and drag the entire group to the new folder.
  
  
• Alternatively, select the contacts, and then from the Edit menu, choose Copy to Folder... . In the dialog box that opens, navigate to the new folder and click it. All your contacts will be copied into the new folder.

Importing Contacts

1. Select your new folder and from the File menu, choose Import and Export... . In the resulting dialog box, choose Export to a file, and click Next.
   
   
2. Choose Microsoft Access and click Next. Then select your newly created folder and click Next.
   
   
3. Choose where you want to save the file, and then click Next. UITS recommends that you save it on the C: drive in the folder called TEMP or something similar (temporary folders will have similar names in different versions of Windows). If you choose to do so, enter: c:\TEMP\merge.mdb

   Replace TEMP with the correct name of the temporary folder for your version of Windows.

4. In the Export to a File dialog box, choose Finish. The export process may take a few minutes, and you cannot cancel it.

Mail merge

1. Open Word and from the Tools menu, choose Mail Merge... .
   
   
2. In the Mail Merge Helper dialog box, click Create. From the drop-down list, choose Envelopes... .
   
   
3. Choose Active Window, and then click Get Data. From the drop-down list, choose Open Data Source... .
   
   
4. Navigate to the location of your saved Access file (e.g., C:\TEMP\merge.mdb) and click Open.
   
   
5. In the resulting window, click the Tables tab. Click OK, and then click Set up Main Document.
   
   
6. In the Envelopes Option dialog box, choose the appropriate envelope. The standard size 10 envelope is the default. Make your selection and click OK.
   
   
7. In the Envelope address dialog box, click Insert Merge Field for each of the following:

   All on the first line:

   • Title
   • First Name
   • Middle Name
   • Last Name

   On the second line:

   • Business Street

   On the third line:

   • Business City, (remember the comma)
   • Business State
   • Business Postal Code

   On the fourth line:

   • Home Street

   On the fifth line:

   • Home City, (remember the comma)
   • Home State
   • Home Postal Code
   
   
8. Once you have inserted all the fields, click OK, and then click Merge.
   
   
9. Under "Records to be merged", select All and Don't print blank lines when data fields are empty. Click Merge.

Now your envelopes will be created. It may take some time.

Printing envelopes

1. From the File menu, select Print, and then click Properties.
   
   
2. Choose the same envelope you chose earlier. Click Apply, and then click OK twice.

Note: Your printer may require that you manually feed the envelopes.

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