iWork '09: The Missing Manual

Mail Merge with Address Book or Numbers

A close cousin of the formatted text field puts Pages on intimate terms with your little black book: Merge fields channel contact info from your Mac’s Address Book program or a Numbers spreadsheet, letting Pages automatically add names and addresses to letters, invoices, and envelopes—or label fax cover sheets with a recipient’s name and fax number. This process of updating your document text with outside contact info is often called a mail merge.

Merge fields are especially handy in document templates. For example, when you open a template for a letter or invoice, Pages automatically enters your return address. Adding the recipient’s address is as easy as dropping her Address Book card into the page. Similarly, if you have a form letter to send to lots of people at once, you can automate your mass mailing by dragging the card for an Address Book group into the window, or by pointing Pages to a Numbers spreadsheet with all the contact info. Pages creates or prints a fresh version of the file for each person in the group, using their own individual contact info. Nice.

Note

Pages can also do a mail merge from virtual address card (or vCard) files, a commonly used file format for exchanging contact info, typically by email. Unfortunately, you can’t do a mail merge from other sources beyond Address Book, vCards, or Numbers. If your mailing list is locked in a database or some other format, you’ll first need to import that data into one of the three ...