Writer Guide

3) Make your selections and then click OK to print direct to the
printer. If you wish to check the envelopes before printing them,
see Step 9 of “Creating a form letter” on page 345 for
instructions.
Using the Mail Merge Wizard to create a
form letter
The manual method of creating a form letter described in “Creating a
form letter” on page 345 provides the most control over the result and
is therefore recommended. If you prefer to use the Mail Merge wizard,
the technique is described below.
Before starting you should note the following limitations, current in
OOo 3:
• In Step 4 creating the salutation only allows the sex-related Mr.
and Mrs. It makes no allowance for Miss or Ms, nor does it permit
sexless addressing such as Dr.
• Again in Step 4, the General salutation is not editable and the
default values are somewhat limited.
• In Step 5 the layout is idiosyncratic, with paragraph marks all
over the place so as to space the address block frame and
salutation. Creating a professional looking document requires
significant editing.
If the above limitations are not a hindrance to you, then open a new
document with File > New > Text Document and start the Mail
Merge wizard using Tools > Mail Merge Wizard. The wizard opens,
as shown in Figure 309.
Step 1: Select starting document
The wizard gives various options to select your starting document:
• Use the current document.
• Create a new document.
• Use a template.
• Use an existing document.
For the purposes of this description we assume that you opened a new
text document. This will ensure that all the steps in the wizard are fully
explored, although with experience you may find it more practical to
use a draft you prepared earlier, which will allow skipping some steps.
360 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide