MS-Access and Mail Merge

Introduction

Address Labels

When we think of address labels, form letters, and mail merge tasks, Microsoft Word is usually the first tool that comes to mind, thanks to its wide range of features designed for these purposes. However, Word requires a data source to supply the content for address labels, form letters, and similar documents. You can either create a table directly within a Word document for recording address data or connect to an external source, such as a Microsoft Access table or another database.

Instead of using Microsoft Word for creating address labels, form letters, and performing mail merge operations in Microsoft Access. Yes, you read that right, we’ll explore how to handle Mail merge directly within Access itself.

While Access may not offer the advanced paragraph formatting features of Word, it remains highly effective for generating form letters, particularly in cases such as agency agreement renewals, Bank Guarantee renewal reminders, or department-wise monthly reports on stationery or telephone expenses. These letters usually consist of one or two standard paragraphs combined with actual data, which Access can quickly assemble and print with minimal effort.

Designing the Address Labels.

We’ll begin with a simple task: designing address labels. MS Access includes a built-in Label Wizard that makes it easy to create address labels of various sizes and layouts. It offers a wide selection of predefined label sizes from different manufacturers, making it ideal for producing hundreds or even thousands of labels on continuous stationery in standard formats.

Ordinary people like me who would like to print on plain paper or cut and paste on envelopes can try the manual method.

A sample image of the output created from a manually designed Address Label is shown below, and we will go through the procedure needed to prepare them:

Click to Enlarge

The Design Task

1. Import the Employees table from the Northwind.mdb sample database if you haven’t already done so in the earlier sessions. For guidance on locating the sample database, refer to my previous post.

   Saving Data on Forms, not in a Table, for the exact location reference of the sample file.

2. Select the Employees Table.

   Select Report from the Insert Menu and select Design View.

3. Go to the View menu and remove the checkmark from Page Header / Footer and Report Header / Footer options to remove them from the report design, if they are visible.

4. Draw a Text Box approximately 3.25" wide at the top and left area of the Detail Section, leaving enough space for the border as shown in the design given below:

   

5. Display the Property Sheet of the TextBox from the View menu and set the Special Effect Property = Chiseled. If you don't like the underlined design, stay with the Flat property setting.

6. Write the expression as shown above in the Control Source Property. The partially visible field is [LastName]; don't forget the closing brackets.

7. Copy the same Text Box, paste it four times down, and write the expression as shown above.

8. Select all five Text Boxes together. Select Vertical Spacing -> Decrease from the Format Menu. Repeat the process till all the TextBoxes come close together.

9. Draw a Rectangle around the TextBoxes. If the Rectangle hides the TextBoxes, then select Transparent from the Fill/Back Color Toolbar Button. When the Label is cut from plain paper, the Border will give the label a proper shape, even if the cutting is not.

10. Now, we must go to the final settings on the Page Setup Control. Select Page Setup from the File Menu.

11. Select the Columns Tab.

    

12. Change the Number of Columns to 2.

13. Column Spacing change to 0.15"

14. In Column-Size control, insert a checkmark in the Same as Detail if it is not appearing there.

15. Column Layout: Across, then Down.

16. Click OK and save the Report with the Name: Address Labels.

17. Open the report in Print Preview; it should resemble the sample image shown at the top of this page.

Next, we will look into setting up and Printing Form Letters.

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