Creating letters from an address list (mail merge)

An invitation or reminder to all your customers, with the right name and address on each letter. In Word this is called Mail Merge. You need two things: an address list and a letter.

The address list

Create a spreadsheet in Calc, Excel or Euro-Office. Put the column names in the first row, for example Salutation, Name, Company, Address, Postcode, Town. Each row after that is one recipient. Don't leave any empty rows. Save the list as ods or xlsx.

In LibreOffice Writer

Step 1: link the address list

1. Open your letter and choose Tools > Mail Merge Wizard....
2. Choose Use the current document and click Next. Choose Letter and click Next.
3. For the address list, click Select Different Address List... (or Select Address List), click Add... and choose your spreadsheet. Select the sheet with the addresses and click OK.
4. If you place the address and salutation in the letter yourself (step 2), untick This document shall contain an address block and the salutation option. Click Finish.

Step 2: add fields to the letter

1. Choose View > Data Sources. Your address list appears at the top.
2. Drag the column heading, for example Name, to the right place in the letter. A field <Name> appears. Do this for all fields and type the spaces and line breaks between them yourself.

Step 3: merge

After the wizard, the Mail Merge toolbar is shown. Use the arrows to browse through the recipients. Then choose:

• Print Merged Documents: send all letters to the printer;
• Save Merged Documents: as one document or as separate files, for example as PDF;
• Edit Individual Documents: all letters in one new document so you can check them.

If you choose File > Print... without the wizard in a letter with fields, LibreOffice asks: Your document contains address database fields. Do you want to print a form letter? Choose Yes to create all the letters.

Labels are created with File > New > Labels. Choose the brand and type of label sheet, select your address list as the database and place the fields on the label.

In Euro-Office

1. Open the letter and go to the Collaboration tab. Click Mail Merge and choose From Storage to select the address list from your Nextcloud.
2. Place the cursor in the right spot and, on the right, click Insert merge field.
3. Check the result with Preview results and under Merge to choose PDF, Docx or Email.

Step by step in Creating letters from an address list. Need the first name as a separate column in your list? See Splitting first and last names from one column.