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One very useful feature within AvaPA is the ability to mail merge a document with users in your AvaPA database.

This how-to is meant as a simple guide to get you started, these are the steps you need to follow and below are the details of each step:

• Setup a template using MS Word
• Select the users to whom you wish to send the mail merged letter
• Import the new template
• Match your merge fields with those in AvaPA
• Merge the document

Note: Most of the steps in this guide are for use with MS Word 2003. Procedures should be similar for other versions and you will still find this document useful.

Setup a template using MS Word

• Open Microsoft Word
• You can either create a new mail merge template or use an existing document. If your document already exists, open it by clicking File -> Open and navigating to the file. Otherwise click File -> New and choose "Blank Document".
• Now, click File -> Save As. In the "Save as type" drop down box at the bottom of the window that appears, choose "Document Template"
• We recommend saving your template in a shared network location - somewhere other users can find it in case they need it.
• Now you will need to add a bookmark for each item you wish to merge. This will tell AvaPA where to insert bits of data, for example the recipient's first name. So, type FIRSTNAME in your document and highlight it.
• Next, hold the left ALT key on your keyboard, press I and K at the same time (CTRL + SHIFT + F5 in Office 2007). A window like the following will appear:
  
  
  
• If you can already see the "FIRSTNAME" bookmark listed, select it. If you can't, type "FIRSTNAME" into the bookmark name box. Next click add.
• The window will close and your bookmark will appear with Square Brackets [  ] around it. If the brackets do not appear, go to: Tools -> Options and turn on Show Bookmarks (In Office 2007, click the MS Word Symbol -> Word Options -> Advanced -> Show Document Content -> Show bookmarks)
  

Note: Make sure that when you convert some text into a bookmark you have only highlighted the word you want to convert. It is easy to accidentally highlight, for instance, "first name", AND "address" on the next line. This will result in both lines being converted into the bookmark.

Select the users to whom you wish to send the mail merged letter

• Go back to AvaPA
• Select users to whom you want to send the mail merge (You can list all users by clicking "List Everyone" on the AvaPA main menu. Hold down CTRL and click on users to select them, or click and drag a box round all the users you want to select.)
• Then click File -> Print -> Mail Shot

• A window may popup asking you to "Set address tab". Select the relevant tab and click OK.

Import the new template

• To locate your new template so AvaPA can use it, click the "Add new template" button shown on the screen shot below:

• Now navigate to the location of your mail merge template and click Open

Match your merge fields with those in AvaPA

• Here you will see a two column list, "Document Bookmarks" and "Fields In AVAPA". The document bookmarks list shows all of the bookmarks you set up in your mail merge template. The Fields in AvaPA column lists all the different fields of data AvaPA can use to fill the bookmark.
• You now need to match up the data types so in the left column, select FIRSTNAME and in the right column select the appropriate data type. Then click the left arrow button. See the screen show below:

• Once you are happy all the data types are properly matched up click the save button at the bottom left

Merge the document

• Finally, click the Print or Preview buttons at the bottom of the window to mail merge the document, it's that simple!