Mail Merge never seems to print off correctly?

Question

When I use mail merge, it always merges the excel spreadsheet title I am getting my addresses from and the first letter never has anything on it? For example I need the name, address, city, postcode details but the first letter will always be blank, then the next one will have name, address, city, postcode, and then the ones after that will have the correct data on it.

any ideas why

Answer 1

I presume you are using Word's Mail Merge, going through Letters & Mailings, Mail Merge and following the six steps of the wizard (if you are Word 2000 or XP). If so, when you associate your spreadsheet with the letter or labels you are trying to produce you willl get a sample up of the fields and when you come to the step when you insert the merge fields (More Items) you should be able to put them in one by one. What you need to do first is make sure your spreadsheet is consistent in the first place, i.e. the field headings are the column headings then that is what they will appear as in the Word document. There shouldn't be a problem if your spreadsheet is set up properly and you follow the steps of Word mailmerge, you should not get any blank lines, nor any blank pages.