Mail Merge in Excel

faq68-4223
Posted: 24 Sep 03 (Edited 21 Dec 10)

Mail Merge in Word has some limitations.

Here's a way to perform a Mail Merge in Excel.

A. Setting up the data.

1. Make a separate sheet for your data table

2. If your data is in another application like Access, use Data/Get External data to query
the columns and rows that you want.
If your data is already in Excel, if you have formatted your table properly (one table
per sheet, headings in row 1 starting in column A, table is contiguous) then you can use
the technique in step 2 as well.

B. Setting up the "form"

The objective is to MAP data from selected columns in your Source Data Table to the
Form, using Named Ranges. If you do not know what a Named Range is, please refer
to Excel HELP.

1. Format the page(s) the way that you want your form to look
2. Each Merge Cell should have no other data in it.
3. Each Merge Cell should be named with the same name as the column heading on the
data sheet.
NOTE: if any data column heading contains a space, then substitute an
UNDERSCORE character for each space. For instance, a data heading like First Name
should have a corresponding Merge Field name of First_Name.

C. Running Mail Merge

1. Select the rows that you want from your data using the AutoFilter or Advanced Filter
if you filter in place.
2. Run MergePrint from Tools/Macro/Macros or a button.

D. The code that runs the Mail Merge

There is a procedure (macro) called MergePrint and a function called RangeName. Paste
both of these into a MODULE in the Visual BASIC Editor. If you wish, you insert a
Button on your sheet Form to run MergePrint.

CODE
Function RangeName(sName As String) As String RangeName =
Application.Substitute(sName, " ", "_")End FunctionSub MergePrint()'set up your
merge form by naming the merge fields _ with the same name as the data fields you
are importing.'if any data field contains spaces, then substitute an
_ UNDERSCORE character for each space in the name. Dim wsForm As
Worksheet, wsData As Worksheet Dim sRngName As String, r As Long, c As
Integer Set wsForm = Worksheets("My Form") 'change to your sheet name Set
wsData = Worksheets("My Data") 'change to your sheet name With
wsData.Cells(1, 1).CurrentRegion For r = 2 To .Rows.Count If Not
wsData.Cells(r, 1).EntireRow.Hidden Then For c = 1 To
.Columns.Count sRngName = wsData.Cells(1,
c).Value Range(RangeName(sRngName)).Value = wsData.Cells(r,
c) Next wsForm.PrintOut End If Next End WithEnd
Sub