Insert Merge Fields in Microsoft Word

Graham Mayor, Microsoft Word MVP, says somewhere on his website that Microsoft has made a "dog's breakfast" of mail merge. I laughed so hard it hurt. And it's so true!!

Some of us think that this is just a method Microsoft is using to push Access on everyone.

Hopefully, the steps here will make the new mail merge wizard a bit less painful to use.

Open any mail merge document, and turn on viewing of your Mail Merge toolbar. Note that there's a button to bring up the Insert Merge Fields dialog. So, sure, if you want to spend all day picking a field from there, clicking it again and again, use that button.

But if you want to do it much more quickly, go to Tools Customize. On the left, choose Mail Merge. On the right, choose Insert Merge Field and drag it up onto your Mail Merge toolbar.

You now have the old method of inserting merge fields back!