Office guide
How to Use Mail Merge Preview and Export
Mail merge combines one template with many CSV records. A careful preview catches mismatched field names, missing values, unsafe HTML, and records that would otherwise produce broken personalized files.
Open the Mail Merge Preview and ExportWhat to prepare
A few reliable inputs make the first result easier to review.
- A template with consistent placeholders
- A CSV whose headers exactly match the placeholder names
- A small test set containing typical, blank, and unusually long values
How to Use Mail Merge Preview and Export
- Choose text or HTML format and enter the template
- Paste the CSV records with one header row and one recipient per row
- Merge the records and inspect the missing-field warnings and previews
- Correct the source or template, then download the personalized results locally
Worked example
A template containing “Hello {{FirstName}}” requires a CSV header named FirstName. If one record is blank, decide whether the greeting should fall back to “Hello” instead of leaving an awkward space.
Review the result
Preview the first, last, and exception records. Check long names, special characters, blank optional fields, HTML links, and line breaks before distributing any generated document.
Practical tips
- Keep placeholder names short and case-consistent
- Test with five varied records before merging a large file
- Retain the original CSV so corrections are traceable
Common mistakes to avoid
- Renaming a CSV header without updating the template
- Assuming blank values will produce grammatically correct text
- Using unreviewed HTML copied from an unknown source
Build it in your browser
The free Mail Merge Preview and Export processes entries locally in your browser. Review the generated draft against source information and any policy that applies before sharing it.