The main document can be a letter, envelope, mailing label, or another type of document which references the data source. The last step is to combine or merge these two documents into a new document. Even if you are sending a similar letter to a unique list of people who you will not need to contact again, it is faster to use the mail merge feature. This certainly is a job for the mail merge feature. The term data source comes from database type of software, like dBase, Access, or Paradox.
Data means information.
Each record, in turn, is made up of fields , like a person's name, address, and phone number. The header row is made up of a list of field names. For most of the exercises in this three-part series, we will tell you what fields and field names to use, so everyone will be working with the same data source. First and last name must be separate so you can sort by last name and use the first name by itself in the salutation. This field can be blank sometimes.