Overview of Mail Merge
Oracle Sales and Marketing lets you use a word processor to create letters and perform a mail merge. A mail merge is an efficient way to personalize a form letter, taking your database of customer information such as address and salutation, and customizing a form letter with the individual customer data.
For example, you can make up a letter to 50 customers notifying them of the specific product they are interested in. Using the mail merge tokens, you can plan the letter to insert items of information from your database, such as name, address, company name, product interest, and any other customer specific information. Your basic letter contains the generic wording; but when you use the mail merge facility, you can generate 50 custom letters.
Microsoft Word® 7.0 is the default word processing application, but another word processor can be substituted.
Each word processor uses slightly different terminology when describing the steps to perform a mail merge. In general, there are two files involved:
- A form letter that contains text that always remains the same, and tokens such as Account Name and Contact Name where actual values are inserted. Microsoft Word calls this file the main document. WordPerfect calls this the primary file.
- A merge file that contains the information that changes in each letter, such as an account name or a contact's name and address. The merge file can contain information on a single contact or on a list of contacts. Microsoft Word calls the merge file the data source. WordPerfect calls this the secondary file.
When you perform a mail merge, the tokens in the form letter tell the word processor where to put the information from the merge file. The form letter and the merge file are combined to create a personalized letter. You can print this file using your word processor's print command. It is not necessary to save the file, because it is easily recreated by performing another mail merge.
Additional Information: Refer to your word processor documentation for more detailed information on mail merge.
