Mail Merge on MS Access?

Question

I need to add mail merge as an addiontal feature on my access database. However i dont really know anything about it. What does it do?
I have made an attemp to create my own mail merge however it was rather unsuccessful.
What i dont understand is, what is being merged?
I thought that it merges your spreadsheet data or just data within your database. But that wasnt the case.
all i got were the fields of my database.
Im am not entirly sure but i am think that it only takes in certain information stored from your database. Like, my staff details. It will take the name and staff details and attach these to my letter or such. This is just my thought, but is this what the process actully does???
Also, if its incorrect can someone please indicate on how i can create a mail merge appropriatly

Answer 1

What you are merging is a standard letter, label, mailing envelope, etc with a collection of records in your database. Instead of having to type in name, address, etc you draw that info from your database like:

[FirstName] [LastName]
[Address]
[City] [State] [Zip]

Dear [FirstName],
We are visiting [City] next week and .....

Any field in your database can be used in the merge.

hope that helps

Answer 2

When I've used the mail merge function before it was Word in conjunction with Access. I'd type up my letter, create labels, or whatever, insert the merge fields of my choosing and then clicked the merge function. Obviously it's a bit more to it than that, but it's really not very difficult at all, the program itself will kinda lead you step by step.