Customizing and Creating Your Own MS Word Mail Merge Documents
The easiest way, even if you are creating your own letter, is to start with one of the letters that is included with the software.
IMPORTANT: All of the MS Word letters are in the folder where the software is installed on your computer (often the C: drive). Look in Program Files folder, then Camelot folder, then Mail Merge Docs folder, which holds folders that categorize the types of mailout.
EXAMPLE: Creating your own reminder letter.
1. Open your MS Word program (windows Start > Programs > Microsoft Word) and from the File pull-down menu at the top choose Open.
2. From the Look In drop-down box choose your C: drive (or the drive letter where you installed Camelot), then double-click on the Program Files folder, then the Camelot folder, then the Mail Merge Docs folder, then the Reminder Letters folder, then any of the reminder letter documents. Do not choose the CHOOSE ME file because it is a data source file. You will use it later in Step 5. All of the Mail Merge documents are saved as Normal documents so that when Word opens them, it won't force you to choose a data source right then. The Data Source is the list of fields and values that will be used to insert the information for the different clients when the letters are created.
3. Now in Word, you will get access to the field names to insert into the letter by clicking on the Tools pull-down menu at the top and choosing Mail Merge.
4. In Word, under Step 1 on the Mail Merge Helper screen, click the Create button, choose Form Letters, and click Active Window.
5. In Word, under Step 2 on the Mail Merge Helper screen, click the Get Data button, choose Open Data Source, and now double-click the document named “1-CHOOSE ME!!! As Data Source for Mail Merge”.
IMPORTANT: If you are using Camelot 3.x, then you need to use the file named "SAMPLEDATASOURCE-MMDATA" for this step. If you do not see this file in your Camelot3 folder, then contact us via the Contact link at the top of this knowledgebase to request it, and we will send it to you, or you can download a zip file containing that new SAMPLEDATASOURCE-MMDATA.doc file from here:
SAMPLEDATASOURCE-MMDATA.ZIP
IMPORTANT: If you are using Camelot 3.x, then you need to use the file named "SAMPLEDATASOURCE-MMDATA" for this step. If you do not see this file in your Camelot3 folder, then contact us via the Contact link at the top of this knowledgebase to request it, and we will send it to you, or you can download a zip file containing that new SAMPLEDATASOURCE-MMDATA.doc file from here:
SAMPLEDATASOURCE-MMDATA.ZIP
6. Now close the Mail Merge Helper screen by clicking the Close button at the bottom right.
7. Now you will be able to make whatever changes you want in this document, either in the body/text of the document, or in the merge fields that are a part of the document.
8. To change the merge data fields, you can drag over one so it is highlighted, then click the Insert Merge Field button at the top left of your Word window and choose whichever field (piece of data) you want to show in the letter.
9. Once you have modified the letter to look like you want, go back to the Tools pull-down menu in Word and choose Mail Merge.
10. From Step 1 on the Mail Merge Helper screen in Word, click the Create Button and choose the last option, Restore to Normal Word Document. Answer Yes that you are sure you want to do this. Then close the Mail Merge Helper screen again.
11. Now choose Save As from the File pull-down menu and name your new letter something different that you can remember, and take note of where you are saving the letter. It is best to save it in the same folder where you opened it (in this case, Reminder Letters), but just with a different name.
12. Lastly you will want to setup a correspondence/source definition to use this new MS Word mail merge document. In Camelot, from the Misc/Setup pull-down menu, choose Correspondence Definitions, and you can either enter a new one, or just change one of the ones that is already there.
IMPORTANT: Be sure that the Mail Merge Document Path and Name on the Mailout/Correspondence tab is set to be this new mail merge document that you have created. If you are on a network, it is a good idea to browse through the Network Neighborhood (My Network Places in Windows 2000) to choose your computer and select the path to the mail merge document from there, so that the other machines on your network will be able to use this same correspondence definition. For more information on adding a new mailout/correspondence definition, see Correspondence Definitions.
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