How to Do Mail Merge from Google Sheets to Word Documents?

Want to do mail merge, but don’t know how? In this article, I am going to explain the steps to perform mail merge from Google Sheets to Microsoft Word. Also, discuss an alternative add-on method to mail merge in the Google environment.

What is Mail Merge?

Mail merge is a powerful tool for creating personalized documents, such as letters, invoices, or labels. It uses a Microsoft Word template with a dataset from Google Sheets. The purpose of using this is to automatically generate hundreds of customized documents without manually creating each one.

Many organizations use Google Sheets to store and organize data. Because the sheets are cloud-based, many can easily share and collaborate in real-time. Whereas Microsoft Word is used for creating professional documents like reports, letters, etc., with advanced editing and design features.

Why Use Mail Merge?

Mail merge is an efficient way to create personalized documents in batches. Without this feature, you will have to manually edit each file. Therefore, many businesses use this for several reasons.

• Manually creating or editing hundreds of personalized letters, certificates, or invitations is very time-consuming. To reduce your time, mail merge offers you an automated process where you have to create only one template, and then you can fill in the details in a Word document using Google Sheets.
• It also allows you to add a personal touch to every document. The personalized message improved engagement and professionalism.
• There is also a risk of mistakes. When you are manually copying and pasting data from Google Sheets to Word. You may potentially make mistakes. To avoid that mail merge pulls data from your sheet to the Word document directly. keeping every record accurate.
• Mail merge can be used in many documents, like business letters, proposals, mailing labels, envelopes, certificates, event invitations, and email campaigns.

Therefore, mail merge is very helpful if you want to know how to do Google Sheets to Microsoft 365 Word mail merge. I will explain the proper steps.

What Do You Need Before Mail Merge?

Before you start the procedure of mail merge. You have to do these things for the smooth merging process.

• In MS Word, first create a document with placeholders like <Name> or <Address> to mark where you want the data.
• Also, properly edit the layout and formatting of your template.
• Then, prepare your Google Sheet that contains all the data you want to merge.
• Make sure the first row contains clear column headers that match the placeholders in your Word document.
• Some users save their Google Sheets in their cloud storage, i.e., Google Drive. Move the file from the cloud platform so that you can do the mail merge.
• Also, you must have a basic understanding of Word’s mail merge feature to create the personalized documents.

After following them, you can now easily go through the procedure of mail merging without any issues.

Mail Merge from Google Sheets to Word (Traditional Approach)

It is the most used method of Mail Merge and is free to use. Microsofst provide you with the mail merge option. By using them, you can merge your Sheets with Word. This method is lengthy, so I am going to explain the procedure step-by-step. Below is the first step of the process.

Step 1: Prepare Google Sheets

The first thing you have to do in the process is to prepare your Google Sheets that you are going to use for mail merge. Here, you have to correct the structure and format. Then, save it to the CSV file. Below are the steps that you must follow.

1. Open the Google Sheet you want to merge into Word. Then, correct the data structure.
2. The first row of the sheets must be your column headers. This serves as a merge field in Word.
3. Provide a simple and descriptive name with no special characters. For example, FirstName, LastName, EmailAddress.
4. Every row below the header should be a single record for the mail merge. If you are sending a letter, then each row should contain all the information for one recipient.
5. Make sure all your data is in one single sheet. Remove any extra sheets, notes, or blank rows to minimize the confusion.
6. Whichever format of data you want to appear in Word, ensure the information is in the same format in the Google Sheets.
7. Break up the information into individual columns. Such as, separate FirstName, LastName for personal greetings, or divide the address into StreetAddress, City, State, and ZipCode.

Step 2: Save Google Sheets to Desktop

After you have properly formatted your data in Google Sheets. Now you have to download. Because mail merge cannot access the cloud file, your first must be in your local storage. The following are the steps of how to download Google Sheets as CSV for mail merge.

1. Open the Google Sheets that you have just formatted.
2. Click on the File option at the top left corner.
3. Select the Download button from the drop-down list.
4. Choose Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) and download the file to your desktop.

Step 3: Create a Mail Merge in Microsoft Word

Now, I am going to explain how you can create the mail merge. Below are the steps that you may need.

1. Launch MS Word and create a new document or open an existing document.
2. In the Menu bar, go to the Mailings button.
3. Click on the Star Mail Merge button. Choose the document type you are generating.

Step 4: Connect Excel File with Word

After creating the mail merge, you have to link your Word file with the file that you have just downloaded.

1. In the Mailing tab, click on the Select Recipients option.
2. Click on the Existing List button. Browse the Excel file.
3. After that, click on Edit Recipient List to sort your data (if needed).

Step 5:Insert Merge Fields in Document

1. Place the cursor where you want to add the information.
2. Click on the Insert Merge Field button.
3. Select the column header from your sheets.
4. To add other information, repeat the steps.

Step 6: Finish Merge Process

After you have successfully merged the documents, follow the steps below to finalize the procedure.

1. To see how the document looks, click on preview Results.
2. After confirming your documents, click on the Finish & Merge button.
3. Choose any one of the options: Edit individual Documents, Print Documents, and Send Email Messages.

By properly following these steps, you can easily perform Google Sheets to Microsoft 365 Word mail merge. Some users also want to mail merge from Google Sheets to Gmail, Google Docs, etc. I also have the option for this, which I have explained below.

Mail Merge Using Google Add-ons – Alternative Method

Those who want to do the mail merge within the Google environment. Google offers you a free add-on, Mail Merge for Google Docs. Many people use this option because it is quick, cloud-based, and doesn’t require downloading your files to send personalized documents. Here are the steps of this method.

1. The first step is to prepare your Google Sheets, properly organize your data in the sheets, and remove any unnecessary information.
2. Then, open Google Docs and create your main document. In your document, insert the placeholders or merge fields where you want the personalized data to appear. Make sure it matches with Google Sheets column headers within the double brackets like [[FirstName]], [[Address]], etc.
3. In the Google Docs menu, click on Extensions and then the Add-ons option.
4. Select the Get add-ons button and install the Mail Merge for Google Docs extension.
5. After installing the add-on, click on Extension in Google Docs. Hover your cursor on the name of the add-ons.
6. Press the Start button and select your Google Sheets.
7. Properly follow the guide to map the merge fields in your Google Docs to the corresponding columns in Sheets.
8. Choose any option: merge all data into a single document, create multiple individual documents, or send as personalized emails.
9. Preview your work and then click on the Merge or Send button to start creating the personalized documents.

Here are the complete methods to perform the mail merge to Word or Google. But, there are drawbacks to the mail merge as you have to repeat the same steps every time, download the sheets each time, and often break the format. So, some users want to permanently move their Google Sheets to Microsoft for easy work. For this, I have a perfect solution for you.

Also read: How to Add Google Sheets to Google Docs?

Move Google Sheets to Word [User Scenario]

Moving your Sheets to Microsoft makes the Mail merge process easier and quicker. That’s why, try the SysTools Google Drive to OneDrive Migration Tool, a professional utility to transfer your files without losing the format. This software easily transfers bulk Google Sheets with proper permission levels. It is easy to use because of its user-friendly interface and is available in Windows and Linux operating systems.

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Last Words

From this article, you can easily perform the mail merge from Google Sheets to Microsoft Word. Here, I have properly explained the traditional method and an alternative solution to perform mail merge. Along with this, I also discuss a user scenario that might help you as well.