How do I do a mail merge from Excel?

A mail merge fills in names, addresses or anything else from a list, so each copy of your publication is made out to a different person. PubKeep reads lists from Excel (.xlsx or .xls) and CSV files.

Before you start, make sure the first row of your list has the column names, like “First Name” and “Address”.

Connect your list

1. Open the publication you want to merge, such as a letter or a sheet of labels.
2. Click the Mailings tab.
3. Click Select Recipients > Use an Existing List.
4. Choose your Excel or CSV file. If the workbook has more than one worksheet, pick the one with your list.

Put the fields on the page

1. Click in the text box where a name or address should go.
2. On the Mailings tab, click Insert Merge Field and choose a column, like First Name.
3. Type any spaces or punctuation you want between fields, and add more fields the same way.

Address Block and Greeting Line add a whole address or a “Dear …” line in one step.

Check it before you print

1. Click Preview Results. The page shows the first person’s details in place of the fields.
2. Use Next and Previous to look through the list.
3. To leave someone out, show their copy and click Exclude This Recipient. You can also click Edit Recipient List and clear the Include box next to anyone you want to skip.

Finish the merge

1. Click Finish & Merge.
2. Choose Merge to Printer to print a copy for each person, or Merge to New Publication to make a new publication with every copy in it, which you can check and save first.

If you’d like to go one step at a time, click the arrow on Mail Merge and choose Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard.

If it still looks wrong

My list is in Outlook

PubKeep can’t read Outlook contacts directly. In Outlook, export your contacts to a CSV file, then choose that file with Select Recipients > Use an Existing List.

Insert Merge Field is grayed out

Connect a list first, then click inside a text box (or select one) and try again.

It says my file has no field names

The first row of the sheet must hold the column names. Add a row at the top of your list with a name for each column, save it, and choose the file again.