Vista Contacts and mail merge 2007

Is is possible to (easily) use data from my 'contacts' list in Vista 2006 in
a mail merge using Word 2007? I do not have 'outlook contacts' which is one
of the standard data sources for recipients. I have tried using data from
'contacts' by way of the 'Existing List' option. This seems to involve first
exporting the addresses from my 'contacts' in to a seperate document and its
all very convulated. Also, I cannot seem to be able to easily pick and
choose which addresses I want to use - I end up with everything in my address
book. There must be a better way, as this is a nightmare.
--
dougal

dougal wrote:
> Is is possible to (easily) use data from my 'contacts' list in Vista 2006 in
> a mail merge using Word 2007? I do not have 'outlook contacts' which is one
> of the standard data sources for recipients. I have tried using data from
> 'contacts' by way of the 'Existing List' option. This seems to involve first
> exporting the addresses from my 'contacts' in to a seperate document and its
> all very convulated. Also, I cannot seem to be able to easily pick and
> choose which addresses I want to use - I end up with everything in my address
> book. There must be a better way, as this is a nightmare.

1. Export Contacts to a file - preferably in .xls format (Excel) but if
that option isn't offered, then to a .csv file.

2. Now open the .csv file in Excel and make any changes you want. Save
as an Excel file, calling it something intuitive like "mailinglist". You
can also manage who to include in your mail merge from the mail merge
process in Word if you want to have a "master mailing list".

3. Now open Word 2007 and do a mail merge using that Excel file as your
data source. Use Word's Help or Wizard to walk you through the steps.

4. You can easily update the Excel file if you are going to do this more
than once.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Thanks. That seemed to work...
--
dougal


"Malke" wrote:

> dougal wrote:
> > Is is possible to (easily) use data from my 'contacts' list in Vista 2006 in
> > a mail merge using Word 2007? I do not have 'outlook contacts' which is one
> > of the standard data sources for recipients. I have tried using data from
> > 'contacts' by way of the 'Existing List' option. This seems to involve first
> > exporting the addresses from my 'contacts' in to a seperate document and its
> > all very convulated. Also, I cannot seem to be able to easily pick and
> > choose which addresses I want to use - I end up with everything in my address
> > book. There must be a better way, as this is a nightmare.
>
> 1. Export Contacts to a file - preferably in .xls format (Excel) but if
> that option isn't offered, then to a .csv file.
>
> 2. Now open the .csv file in Excel and make any changes you want. Save
> as an Excel file, calling it something intuitive like "mailinglist". You
> can also manage who to include in your mail merge from the mail merge
> process in Word if you want to have a "master mailing list".
>
> 3. Now open Word 2007 and do a mail merge using that Excel file as your
> data source. Use Word's Help or Wizard to walk you through the steps.
>
> 4. You can easily update the Excel file if you are going to do this more
> than once.
>
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
>