Access Cookbook

Perform a Mail Merge from Access to Word

Problem

You’d like to be able to do a mail merge to Word using Access data, without having to launch the mail merge from Word using its mail merge features.

Solution

Access allows you to output data directly to any format using the DoCmd.OutputTo functionality. You can then run a mail merge from Word to a predefined Word template that contains the merge codes.

First you must create the Word template that holds your merge codes; then you can write the code in Access that performs the merge. The sample application 12-04.MDB contains a table and a query that retrieves the data to be sent to Word.

To perform a mail merge from Access to Word, follow these steps:

1. In Access, create the query that you will use for your data. Copy the rows from the datasheet view of the query and paste them into a Word document.

2. Save the Word document in the same folder as the Access database. The sample application uses the name “qryCustomers”.

3. In Word, create a template by choosing File → New → Template from the menu. Fill in the plain text for your main merge document.

4. Choose Tools → Mail Merge from the menu to add the merge fields to the template. Use the Active Document option and select the Word document you created in Step 2. This will add the merge toolbar to your application.

5. Insert the merge codes for the fields in your template, then save the template in the same folder as qryCustomers.doc and the Access database.

6. In Access, write the code to perform ...