Mail Merging in office word 2007

Mail  Merging in Microsoft office Word 2007

Word processing: Mail Merge

Mail merging is a straight forward process of combining 2 documents into one. It is the process in which two different documents that is, the body of the letter and the recipient addresses are created independently and later merged into one single document. The documents maintain their independence and can each be edited without affecting the other. The technology is known as mail merging.

Mail merging help ease the burden of typing and sending several letters to different recipients especially if the contents of the letter is identical.

The reason why you should consider using mail merging especially when you want to send the same letter to a group of people in different locations is that it will help arrange and organise the whole process.

For example imagine you are working for a water and sewerage company as a secretary. As a secretary your work involves notifying your clients each and every month about their water bills, previous balances etc. The bill has to have a consistent predefined format, style and your company's address field somewhere in the far left or right top of the document that is reflected on all letters sent to your clients save for few fields of information like <<Date Due>>, <<Bill Balance>> etc.

In other applications the <<Date Due>> and <<Bill Balance>> are stored in a database file and are called into the main document. In Word processing applications like Microsoft office word, the process involves 2 documents namely Data source and Main document. The Data source is the document containing information specific to each client, like the <<Title>>, <<Address>>, <<Client name>>, <<Bill Balance>> etc.

The Data source can be a plain text file, database file, or a document you created see Creating a Data source file.

The Main document can be explained as the Standardized letter which you will use to insert special instructions called merge fields where you want the contents of your data source to appear.

applying borders and shadding office word 2007

Applying Borders and Shading to your Word 2007 document part 1

Using Borders in Microsoft office Word 2007

A border is a line showing the boundary of an item or object within a document. A good examples are text borders, table borders, picture borders etc.

Using borders and shading can enhance the appearance of your document by giving your document a unique outlook. 

To begin applying borders in your Microsoft word 2007 document, follow the instruction below

step 1

Click on Page Layout Menu if its not already clicked and go to Page background group

step 2 

In the page background group choose page borders

step 3

In the  borders and shading dialog box that appears there are three tabs;-

The first tab is borders, the second is page borders, and the last one is shading.

The first tab called borders is used to set text borders

The second tab page borders sets and creates a page border

While shading can be used to apply a background color to a document.

Document proofing in MS office 2007

Document proofing in MicroSoft office 2007

Document proofing is the art of finding and correcting typing, spelling and grammar errors. Proofing May be automatic meaning that the application auto corrects known errors like character casing, spelling and grammar that occurs while the user is typing. [see Manual Document proofing].

To configure Microsoft word 2007 to automatically correct errors associated with typing, spelling and grammer, do the following;

Step 1
 a) Click on word options under the office button, 

b) then proofing

 
step 2
Click on the AutoCorrect Options button to change how word corrects and formats text as you type

Step 3
In the AutoCorrect dialog box that opens, check the check boxes that corresponds to your preference and click OK

Step 4
Under "when correcting spelling in Microsoft office programs" label
check and uncheck appropriate checkboxes.

Step 5
under "when correcting spelling and grammar in Word" repeat step 4

You can choose to hide spelling and grammatical errors in the current document you are working on or all Microsoft Word documents just by checking the hide spelling errors and grammar checkboxes under Exceptions

Inserting Objects into Microsoft office Word 2007 document

How to Insert an Object into Microsoft Word 2007 document

In Order to insert and object into your Microsoft word document do the following

step 1
Click on the insert Menu

step 2
Under illustrations group select Picture to insert picture or any image into your Word document, Clip Art to insert clip art, Shapes to insert shapes, SmartArt to insert Smart arts into your document or Chart to insert Chart into your Word Document

see Arranging Objects in Microsoft office Word 2007 document

Arranging objects in Microsoft office Word 2007

Arranging objects in Microsoft office Word 2007

Read about Inserting Objects into your Microsoft office Word 2007

Now that you understand how to insert objects into office word 2007, it is high time you get to know how to arrange those objects inside your office word document.

Objects inside your document if not well arranged can make even arranging texts a very tiresome and frustrating job.

Because of the changes in the new office 2007 interface you will have to adapt a bit if you are coming from Microsoft office 2003 interface.

To arrange an object

1. Click on the object to select it
2. under picture tools select format then text wrapping
3. Under text wrapping select either

• inline with text
• square
• tight
• behind text
• infront of text
• Top and bottom
• Through
• Edit wrap points
• More layout options

 The choice you make under text wrapping will determine how your objects are placed inside your document. For instance if you want the text to appear at the top and bottom of your document then you will have to choose Top and Bottom

Your final document should look like the one below

Text Wrapping (top and bottom)

Save or open a document in office 2007

Begining Microsoft office 2007: How to save a document or open in Microsoft office 2007

office 2007 button

To begin with is the new office button;    







The office button contains almost all the commands found in the File Menu command in Microsoft office 2003.


These commands are basic such as New, Open, Save, Save As, Print, Prepare, Send, Publish and Close. It is located on the far top left corner of the program window

.



So next time you want to save or print your document look no further, just click on the office button 

Microsoft office 2007 changes

MICROSOFT OFFICE 2007 Tutorials

Microsoft office 2007 has too many changes but mastering it should not take more than a day to find your way through it if you are already familiar with older versions. In order to effectively and quickly master office 2007 you need to at least have knowledge in other preceding versions of office like office 2003 version but it is not a requirement to learning office 2007.

Changes to Microsoft office 2007

The Microsoft office 2007 new interface completely changed how users interacts with Microsoft office products save for Microsoft office publisher which inherited the 2003 interface. Due to lots of rearrangement  names of common commands and tools were changed with new and strange names.

For example in Microsoft office 2007 there is no File, Edit, Tools, Format, and Window Menu. The Help menu command too has been changed with an icon and positioned on the far top right corner of the program window. The formatting toolbar has been removed and its contents placed under Home Menu command in the Font and Paragraph group (group is a new name used in Microsoft office 2007 to group similar commands and tools, like under the Home menu command there are 5 groups of commands.

The Clipboard, Font, Paragraph, Styles, and Editing. Under the clipboard group you will find the commands to cut and paste. Under the font group there are tools like Bold, Italic, Underline, Character cAsinG etc.

These changes made using Microsoft office 2007 a bit more complicated but if you have prior experience in other preceding lower versions of Microsoft office then starting with [Microsoft office 2007 quickstart ] will be worthwhile.