Guide to using Open Office templates

Mail merge
Mail merge is one of the most impressive time-savers that a word processor can offer. It takes one document that needs to be personalised, normally a letter to be addressed to many people, and creates many copies of it based on a collection of information – ­ usually a spreadsheet or database full of names and addresses. A mail merge in Open Pffice requires a Writer document and a spreadsheet created in Open Office Calc.

Some explanation about databases is necessary here. We’re going to use a spreadsheet containing addresses, but the information is in a database as far as Open Office is concerned. It sees each row of the spreadsheet as a record, which is all the information that can be used in one letter. Each column (Name, Town and Postcode, for example) in the record is called a field.

The first step is to create both the starting document and the spreadsheet. For this example, the document we have created is a thank-you letter for a birthday celebration. The spreadsheet, meanwhile, has a row for each gift-giver, with separate fields for their first name and surname, each line of their address, what gift they gave and a personal message. The latter is to hide the fact that the letter has been created with a mail merge.

Once you have both documents to hand, follow the step-by-step guide below to connect the two files together.

How to set up a mail merge
Click on the File menu, Wizards and then Address Data Source. Click on ‘Other external data source, click on Next and then on the Settings button. Click in the dropdown menu labeled Database type and select Spreadsheet. Click on Next. Click on Browse and find the spreadsheet. Click on it once and then on Open and then Finish.

If you want to use the automatic address section you will need to match the fields in the spreadsheet to those in Open Office. Click on the Field Assignment button. Click on the dropdown menus for each field and select the correct field in the spreadsheet. Leave unused fields as . Click on OK.

Click in the text box labelled Address book name and type a name for the list. Click on Finish. Press F4 in Open Office Writer and check that the spreadsheet has been imported. Click on the small plus symbols by the spreadsheet name and Tables, and then click on the single entry to see the contents in the main part of the data window.

With that done, return to Writer and press F4 to show the Data pane if it is not already visible. Click on the small ‘+’ symbol next to the spreadsheet name to expand it, and then the Tables option. Click on the Sheet1 entry and the main part of the pane will show the contents of the spreadsheet.

Adding fields
To add a field to a document ­ we started with the personal message ­ left-click on a column heading and, without letting go of the mouse button, move the mouse to where you want that information to appear in your document.

A grey cursor will appear to show the exact position. Let go of the mouse button to place the field. The field name will appear highlighted in grey. Don’t include any of the address information yet.

Once the gift and personal message fields have been added, the next step is to add the address and create the individual letters.

To do this, we’ll run the Mail merge wizard. Click on the Tools menu and then Mail Merge wizard. Leave the top option ‘Use the current document’ selected and click on Next. Letter should be selected, so click on Next again. Writer can add the address in one go, which is why we waited until now. Select the option in section 2, ‘This document shall contain an address block’.

There are two kinds of address block in this window, click on the More button to see some alternatives. As this is a personal letter, leave the left-hand option selected as well as the option just below to suppress (ignore) any empty fields.

Click on Match Fields and match the fields in the spreadsheet to those used by the address block. Leave any fields you don’t have as . Click on OK. A preview of the address block is shown in section 4. Click on the small arrows below the box to move through the different records and check that they are displaying properly. Click on Next when you are happy with the address block.

We are not going to use the Openoffice Salutation option because it complicates matters by wanting to use different greetings for male and female recipients. Instead, click on Next. Adjust the vertical position of the address block so that it fits with the rest of the document and click on Next.

The spreadsheet and writer documents are now merged and you can browse through the results by clicking on the arrows in the top part of the window.

If the document needs any final editing, click on the Edit Document button. A floating button will appear that says Return to Mail Merge Document. Left-click on this when you are happy with the changes in the document to start the wizard from where we left off. Click on Next.

A new document is created with a new page for each recipient on our list. This gives us one last chance to edit individual letters. The Find tool is useful if you want to locate the letter to a specific recipient and change that. Click on Next.