Are you struggling to send the same document to a large number of people? Then, it’s time to use Google Docs mail merge.
By using Google Docs Mail Merge, you don’t have to type each recipient’s name separately in each letter. You can simply create hundreds of personalized templates using Google Docs mail merge.
And the great advantage is you a single change made in the main letter will be reflected in the letters meant for all other recipients. You may wonder how to mail merge in Google Docs. Let’s dive deep into this article to learn Google Docs mail merge.
Along with this, we will also discuss a few other topics as below
- What is mail merge?
- Mail merge in Google Docs
- Google Docs Mail merge using third-party add-ons
- Google Docs Mail merge using Autocrat
- Google Docs Mail merge using Quicklution
- Google Docs Mail merge using the Google Docs API
Table Of Contents
What is mail merge?
A mail merge takes data from a database, spreadsheet, or any other form of structured data, and insert it into documents such as letters, mailing labels, and even name tags. Mail merge requires two documents – one is to store the variable data to be inserted, and the other contains both the instructions for formatting the variable data and the information that will be identical across each result of the mail merge.
To use mail merge in Google Docs, you’ve to create a single “master” document which is the actual template from which you can generate many similar documents, each customized with the data being merged.
Mail merge in Google Docs
Google Docs doesn’t have a native mail merge feature. But there are some workarounds you can try to do mail merge in Google Docs. Two popular ways to do a mail merge in Google Docs are
- Google Docs Mail merge using third-party add-ons.
- Google Docs Mail merge using the Google Docs API.
If you’re familiar with coding basic scripts in Python, you can use the Google Docs API to perform a Google Docs mail merge. Otherwise, you can consider using third-party add-ons like Autocrat or Quicklution to handle the technical aspects. You can also use Google Sheets with GMass, an mail merge tool to perform the mail merge.
Google Docs Mail merge using third-party add-ons
If you want to perform Google Docs mail merge, you can utilize Google Docs add-ons like Autocrat or Quicklution. Let’s see how to use these add-ons in Google Docs to perform mail merge.
Google Docs Mail merge using Autocrat
To perform mail merge in Google Docs using Autocrat, follow the below steps.
Step 1: Open Google Sheets and create a spreadsheet containing the data you want to merge. This will be your data file.
Note: Include headers for each data column like your recipient’s names, job titles, companies, etc. You’ll need to use these headers as personalization placeholders in your Google Docs document.
Step 2: Open Google Docs to create the main document that contains placeholders for your data.
Step 3: To perform a mail merge, type the email body in Google Docs and add merge tags to it. Autocrat add-on will insert data from your Google Sheet by fetching these merge tags as placeholders.
Step 4: You can create a merge tag by typing the spreadsheet’s column headings inside the << >> symbols.
Step 5: Once your Google Docs and Google sheets documents are ready, you need to install the Autocrat add-on. Open the Google Sheet containing your data. Navigate to the top of the menu bar and select Get add-ons.
Step 6: Search for Autocrat in the window that opens and install it. Autocrat needs your permission in order to start installing. Click continue and give Autocrat access to your Google account.
Step 7: Once the add-on installed, select Add-ons > Autocrat > Launch in your Google Spreadsheet file to launch Autocrat. Once Autocrat has launched, click NEW JOB.
Step 8: In the window that opens, provide a name for the merge job, and press Next.
Step 9: Now, select “From Drive” and choose the Google Docs template you’ve created earlier, and click Next.
Step 10: Now, you’ve to ensure the source data in Google Sheets is linked to the email template document in Google Docs. If the tags in your Google Docs document match the columns in your Google sheets data, the Autocrat will automatically map them. Otherwise, you’ve to map them manually using the drop-down menus on the right side of the screen. Once done, click next.
Step 11: Give file name, choose the file type, and click next to continue.
Step 12: You can also choose destination folders and can add dynamic folder reference.
Step 13: Once you’ve completed all the steps, select the play button to start the mail merge.
Note: You can also use the pencil icon to edit the mail merge, the eye icon to preview it, and the trashcan icon to delete it.
Once you’ve run the job, your merged document would look like below.
Google Docs Mail merge using Quicklution
Quicklution helps to personalize emails, letters, and envelopes by merging data from Google Docs. This MailMerge add-on is simpler and easier to use.
How to perform mail merge using the Google Doc add-on Quicklution?
Simply follow the below steps to perform mail merge in Google Docs.
Step 1: Create your Google Docs template that will be the document containing email body or letters.
Step 2: Install the app and Click Add-ons->Mail Merge->Start.
Step 3: Click “Open Spreadsheet” to choose a Google Sheet file from which you want to merge data.
Step 4: Select the sheet tab you want to merge data from. Ensure the first row in your sheet contains column names. Otherwise, you need to do it on your own.
Step 5: Insert merge fields into the Google Document template. Merge fields are the column name found in the first row of the data in your Google Sheet.
Step 6: You can also customize the merge fields by changing their font color, size, etc, and adding images.
Step 7: Once you’ve done all desired changes, click the blue Merge button to start the mail merge process.
Step 8: Instead of sending emails straight away, you can also have the option to merge emails to your Drafts Folder.
Your documents will be mail merged.
Google Docs Mail merge using the Google Docs API
To perform Google Docs mail merge using Google Docs API, you need to have some knowledge of coding scripts in Python. You can visit “Google Docs for Developers” to do a mail merge using Google Docs API.
You may also like following the below articles
- How To Create Google Docs Template?
- How To Move A Table In Google Docs
- How to add or delete Google docs page break
- How to save Google docs to your computer
- How to make Google docs available offline
Voila! Create multiple documents at once and save your time and effort of retyping the same letter over and over. Simply follow the above steps to perform mail merge in Google Docs!
We have also discussed the below topics
- Google Docs Mail Merge
- What is mail merge?
- Mail merge in Google Docs
- Google Docs Mail merge using third-party add-ons
- Google Docs Mail merge using Autocrat
- Google Docs Mail merge using Quicklution
- Google Docs Mail merge using the Google Docs API