Editing Mail merge (section)

{{Short description|Tool for mass mailings from a form letter}}
'''Mail merge''' consists of combining mail and [[Letter (message)|letters]] and pre-addressed [[envelope]]s or mailing labels for mass mailings from a [[form letter]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Cambridge Dictionary Online|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mail-merge|access-date=14 May 2016}}</ref>

This feature is usually employed in a [[word processor|word processing]] document which contains fixed [[plain text|text]] (which is the same in each output document) and variables (which act as placeholders that are replaced by text from the data source word to word).

Some word processors can insert content from a database, spreadsheet, or table into text documents.<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/826838/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-mail-merge-feature-in-word-2003-w
|quote=the result is that each row (or record) in the data source ... listed in a spreadsheet ...
|title=Frequently asked questions about the mail merge feature in Word}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Mail Merge |website=iSchool.uTexas.edu (Tutorials) |url=https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/technology/tutorials/office/mail_merge |access-date=2018-11-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130127094633/http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/technology/tutorials/office/mail_merge/ |archive-date=2013-01-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

It is a powerful tool for writing a personalized letter or e-mail to many people at the same time. It imports data from another source such as a spreadsheet and then uses that to replace placeholders throughout the message with the relevant information for each individual that is being messaged.