How to Create a Mail Merge in Pages GA S REGULAR Menu Lifewire Tech for Humans Newsletter! Search Close GO Software & Apps > Apps
How to Create a Pages Mail Merge
By Rebecca Johnson Rebecca Johnson Freelance Contributor Rebecca Johnson is a former freelance contributor to Lifewire and a Microsoft Office Certified Master Instructor who specializes in Microsoft Office products. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on April 26, 2021 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Apps Best Apps Payment Services The information below applies to macOS 10.14 (Mojave). The third-party app described here is no longer supported. What to Know
Download the Pages Data Merge app and prepare a spreadsheet with mailing data. In Pages, open a template (such as an envelope). Click Format > More, highlight each placeholder text, then click Format > Advanced > Define as Placeholder Text. Open Pages Data Merge and then assign placeholder tags, define the export file's format and location, and run the mail merge. This article explains how to create a mail merge in Pages. Pages doesn't have a built-in mail-merge function, so the method below relies on a third-party app called Pages Data Merge. This method has been tested only on macOS 14 (Mojave), and the app is no longer in development. Create a Form File
The first part of this process is creating a form file in Pages: Download the Pages Data Merge app and unzip the zip file. macOS puts the file into a folder named PagesDataMergeApp. Define each item of placeholder text to be filled with information from the spreadsheet data file (see below), for example, first name, last name, and address. Click Format > More. On the envelope, highlight each placeholder text, starting with FIRSTNAME. In the top menu, click Format > Advanced > Define as Placeholder Text. In the formatting menu at the bottom, under Script Tag, type a name for this placeholder text field. This example uses FIRSTNAME. Repeat step 4 for each placeholder text item that corresponds to data that will be imported from the spreadsheet: LASTNAME, STREET, CITY, STATE, ZIP. If your spreadsheet has column headers, the headers don't have to match the placeholder text names (for example, FIRSTNAME and LASTNAME). Open the Data File in Numbers
In Numbers, open the spreadsheet with the names and addresses that will populate the placeholder text defined in step 2. Select all cells with data you want to include in the mail merge. The mail merge app imports only the items you have selected in this step. Assign Placeholder Tags
Next, you'll tell the app which fields correspond to which bits of data, and where to find the data. Open Pages Data Merge by double-clicking the unzipped app file named Pages Data Merge. The app is labeled with numbers for each setting you'll use to create the mail merge. Next to 1 in the app, click the menu and choose Selection Numbers Table. Click Import. The first row is pulled in and displayed. Select the first item imported (in this case, the name James). Next to 2, click the drop-down menu and choose the placeholder tag FIRSTNAME (the first placeholder text item defined). Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each item imported until all items are assigned placeholder tags. For example, select Jones and choose LASTNAME from the drop-down menu. Next to 3 in the app, choose the file format you would like the mail merge to use for each envelope. In this example, we select Pages Document. Other options are: Microsoft Word Document.MS Word Doc (encrypted).PDF Document.PDF Document (encrypted).EPUB.Unformatted Text. Choose the Export File' s Format and Location
Next to 4 in the app, click Choose Export Folder and select the location for the merged files to be saved. Number 5 in the app is an optional function you can use to automatically send individual emails related to the mail merge. Run the Mail Merge
Now that you have assigned placeholder tags from the Pages document to the data items imported from the Numbers data file, you're ready to run the mail merge. Next to 6 in the app, click Begin. You're prompted to confirm that you want to perform a data merge using the front Pages document. Click Begin. The mail merge AppleScript you designed with the app runs. A Pages document is created for each person in the spreadsheet and is populated with names and addresses. You'll see each of these pop open and the data added before the script moves on to the next one. Each file is named after the envelope template with a number appended after a dash, for example, mailmerge_envelope-1, mailmerge_envelope-2, and so on. When the script finishes, a completion dialog box appears. If you click Show, you are taken to the folder in which the individual files are saved. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit More from Lifewire What Is Mail Merge in Word? How to Print Labels from Excel How to Merge and Unmerge Cells in Excel How to Create Mail Merge Letters in Word CSV File (What It Is & How to Open One) How to Convert Excel Documents to the PDF Format How to Use Google Sheets How to Remove Paragraph Symbols in Outlook How to Highlight and Find Duplicates in Google Sheets How to Put a Spreadsheet in Google Slides XLR File (What It Is & How to Open One) How to Open Zip Files on iPad or iPhone How to Plan and Create WordPerfect Templates ET File (What It Is and How to Open One) How to Print to PDF How to Sum Columns or Rows in Google Sheets Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies