In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create professional mailing labels in Microsoft Word using contact information stored in an Excel spreadsheet. This walkthrough uses Word’s Mail Merge feature to connect your Excel data to a label template, making it easy to print labels for holiday cards, customer mailings, invitations, fundraising campaigns, and more. You’ll also find downloadable sample files and a quick reference guide to help you follow along.

What You’ll Learn

  • How to prepare an Excel spreadsheet for Mail Merge
  • How to start a Mail Merge for mailing labels in Microsoft Word
  • How to connect Word to an Excel data source
  • How to insert and arrange merge fields on a label
  • How to update all labels with the same formatting
  • How to preview your labels before printing
  • How to complete the merge and print or save your labels

Practice & Resources

This tutorial includes the following companion resources:

These files aren’t the originals used in the video, but they follow the same process so you can practice each step yourself.

Click the button below to view the resources available for this tutorial.

View Resources

Common Uses

  • Holiday card mailing lists
  • Customer mailing campaigns
  • Business correspondence
  • Event invitations
  • Fundraising mailings
  • Membership or donor communications
  • Shipping and return address labels

Requirements / Compatibility

  • Microsoft Word with the Mail Merge feature
  • Microsoft Excel containing your mailing list
  • Compatible with modern Microsoft 365 versions as well as Word 2016, 2019, 2021, and newer. The overall Mail Merge process has remained largely the same across these versions, although some buttons may appear in slightly different locations.

Video Tutorial

How Mail Merge Works

Mail Merge connects a Microsoft Word document to a data source—such as an Excel spreadsheet—and automatically creates a personalized label for every row of data.

The basic workflow is:

  1. Create or prepare your Excel list.
  2. Start a Label Mail Merge in Word.
  3. Connect Word to the Excel workbook.
  4. Insert merge fields where each piece of information should appear.
  5. Update all labels.
  6. Preview the results.
  7. Finish the merge and print or save the labels.

Once you understand this process, you can use the same Mail Merge tools to create envelopes, letters, emails, directories, and other personalized documents.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Get a quick reference guide with these steps here: 2-Page Quick Reference Guide (PDF)

Part 1: Prepare Your Excel File

  1. Add column headers. Put a clear header at the top of each column (e.g., First Name, Last Name, Address, City, State, Zip Code). You’ll need these to match fields later.
  2. Fix zip code formatting. If any zip codes start with 0, make sure that leading zero isn’t dropped:
    • Select the zip code column
    • Right-click → Format Cells
    • Choose Special → Zip Code
  3. Note your tab name. If your workbook has multiple tabs, remember which one holds your data — you’ll need to select it during the merge.
  4. Save the file somewhere easy to find (like your Desktop) and remember the file path — you’ll need to browse to it from Word.

Part 2: Set Up the Label Document in Word

  1. Open a new blank Word document.
  2. Go to the Mailings tab → Start Mail Merge → Labels.
  3. Choose your label brand and product number (e.g., under Label Vendors, select Avery US Letter, then type your product number, such as 5160, to find it quickly).
  4. Click OK. Your document will now show an empty label grid.

Part 3: Connect Your Excel List

  1. On the Mailings tab, click Select Recipients → Use an Existing List.
  2. Browse to your saved Excel file and click Open.
  3. Select the correct tab/sheet name when prompted, and make sure the box for “column headers” is checked.
  4. Click OK. Your labels should now show “Next Record” in each cell except the first.

Part 4: Add and Format the Fields

  1. Click into the first label.
  2. Go to Insert Merge Field and add fields one at a time, arranging them like a mailing address:
    • First Name (add a space) Last Name → Enter
    • Address → Enter
    • City, (add comma/space) State (add space) Zip Code
  3. Format as needed — highlight text and use Bold, font size, etc. to make it easy to read.

Tip: Instead of adding fields manually, you can click Address Block for a quick, pre-built layout. Use Match Fields first if your column headers don’t exactly match the expected names (e.g., “F Name” instead of “First Name”).

Part 5: Update, Preview, and Finish

  1. Go back to the Mailings tab and click Update Labels — this copies your field layout to every label on the page.
  2. Click Preview Results to see how the actual data looks in each label. Use the arrows to check several entries.
  3. Not quite right? Go back to Mailings, make adjustments, click Update Labels again, and re-preview.
  4. When you’re happy with the layout, click Finish & Merge:
    • Print Documents — to print immediately, or
    • Edit Individual Documents — to open the merged labels as a new Word file first, so you can review or tweak individual entries before printing.
  5. Print your labels once everything looks correct.

Additional Tips

  • Make sure your Excel spreadsheet has a header row with clear column names (First Name, Last Name, Address, City, State, ZIP Code, etc.).
  • Don’t leave completely blank rows in your mailing list, as they can create empty labels.
  • After inserting your merge fields on the first label, remember to click Update Labels so every label uses the same layout.
  • Use Preview Results to check for spacing or formatting issues before printing.
  • You can also complete the merge to a new document instead of printing immediately, allowing you to review every label first.

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