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<meta>
      <topic id="textswriterguideform_letters_mainxml" indexer="include">
         <title xml-lang="en-US" id="tit">Creating a Form Letter</title>
         <filename>/text/swriter/guide/form_letters_main.xhp</filename>
      </topic>
   </meta>
   <body>
<bookmark xml-lang="en-US" branch="index" id="bm_id3159257"><bookmark_value>serial letters</bookmark_value>
      <bookmark_value>form letters</bookmark_value>
      <bookmark_value>mail merge</bookmark_value>
      <bookmark_value>letters; creating form letters</bookmark_value>
      <bookmark_value>wizards;form letters</bookmark_value>
</bookmark><comment>mw added "serial letters"</comment>
<paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="hd_id3159257" role="heading" level="1"><variable id="form_letters"><variable id="form_letters_main"><link href="text/swriter/guide/form_letters_main.xhp" name="Creating a Form Letter">Creating a Form Letter</link>
</variable>
</variable></paragraph>
      <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3150502" role="paragraph">To create a form letter, you need a text document that contains fields for address data, and an address database. Then you combine or merge the address data and the text document to either print the letters or send them by e-mail.</paragraph>
      <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id0805200801132382" role="note">If the document is in HTML format, any embedded or linked images will not be sent with the e-mail.</paragraph>
      <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_idN10653" role="paragraph">The <link href="text/swriter/01/mailmerge00.xhp">Mail Merge Wizard</link> helps you to create form letters.</paragraph>
      <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_idN10664" role="heading" level="1">To create a form letter</paragraph>
      <list type="ordered">
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_idN1066B" role="paragraph">Choose <emph>Tools - Mail Merge Wizard</emph>.</paragraph>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_idN10672" role="paragraph">You see the Mail Merge Wizard dialog. The following is an example of one of many possible ways to navigate the wizard's pages:</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_idN10676" role="paragraph">Select <emph>Start from a template</emph>, and click the <emph>Browse</emph> button.</paragraph>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_idN10681" role="paragraph">You see the <emph>New</emph> dialog.</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_idN10685" role="paragraph">Select <item type="literal">Business Correspondence</item> in the left list, and then <item type="literal">"Modern" business letter</item> in the right list. Click <emph>OK</emph> to close the Templates dialog, and click <emph>Next</emph> in the wizard.</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id2669759" role="paragraph">Select <emph>Letter</emph> and click <emph>Next</emph>.</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_idN106BD" role="paragraph">On the next step of the wizard, click the <emph>Select Address List</emph> button to check that you are using the correct address list. If you want to use an address block, select an address block type, match the data fields if necessary, and click <emph>Next</emph>.</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_idN106C5" role="paragraph">Next follows the <emph>Create a salutation</emph> step. Deselect the <emph>Insert personalized salutation</emph> box. Under <emph>General salutation</emph>, select the salutation that you want on top of all letters.</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_idN106C6" role="paragraph">If you want to place mail merge fields anywhere else in the document select the corresponding column in your address data source and then drag and drop the column header into the document where you would like the field to be. Be sure to select the entire column.</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_idN106D5" role="paragraph">Click <emph>Next</emph> and finally <emph>Finish</emph> to create the mail merge.</paragraph>
         </listitem>
      </list>
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      <embed href="text/shared/guide/data_addressbook.xhp#data_addressbook"/>
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