📘 Chapter 5: Mail Merge
🔷 Introduction
📨 Mail Merge is a feature in word processors like LibreOffice Writer that allows users to send personalized letters or emails to multiple recipients at once.
📌 Instead of typing each letter separately, Mail Merge combines a common document (letter or invitation) with a data source (like names, addresses) to produce many personalized documents.
🔷 What is Mail Merge?
✉️ Mail Merge is used to automatically generate customized letters, certificates, envelopes, or emails for different people.
📝 For example: Sending the same invitation letter to 100 people with their own names and addresses inserted automatically.
🔗 Mail Merge works by linking a main document with a data source containing fields (like Name, Address, Email).
🔷 Components of Mail Merge
🔸 Main Document: The template letter or invitation containing fixed content and merge fields.
🔸 Data Source: A table or list that contains variable data such as names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. This can be created using Writer Table or Calc spreadsheet.
🔸 Merge Fields: Placeholders like <FirstName> or <Address> that will be replaced with actual data from the source.
🔷 Creating Data Source
🗂️ You can create a data source in the form of a table with columns like Name, Address, City, etc.
📋 Step 1: Open LibreOffice Writer → Go to View → Data Sources.
📎 Step 2: Choose to create a new database or use a spreadsheet.
📝 Step 3: Save your data source (for example, student_list.ods).
🔄 Step 4: Connect the main document to this data source while setting up Mail Merge.
🔷 Using Mail Merge
🧩 Step 1: Write your main document (like a letter) in LibreOffice Writer.
🔗 Step 2: Go to Tools → Mail Merge Wizard.
📑 Step 3: Choose the document type (Letter or Email).
📂 Step 4: Select and connect the data source created earlier.
🔁 Step 5: Insert merge fields like <Name> or <City> at the correct places in your letter.
📄 Step 6: Preview the merged letters for each recipient.
💾 Step 7: Save or print the final merged documents.
🔷 Benefits of Mail Merge
✅ Saves time when sending bulk letters or emails.
✅ Maintains a professional and personalized touch.
✅ Reduces manual typing and errors.
✅ Can be used for certificates, invitations, notices, and more.
