Chapter 5: Mail Merge - Class 10 IT Notes

Chapter 5: Mail Merge - Class 10 IT Notes

📘 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.

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