Computers and Technology > Personal Tech > Mail-merging: The Principles
0
Reviews [ add review ],
Article rating : 0.00, 0 votes. Author : Terry Freedman
About mail-merging
Mail-merging is the process of merging variable data and fixed
text.
Using mail-merging, you can create individualised letters,
envelopes, labels and other documents without having to
laboriously create each individual one.
Mail-merging naturally fulfils one of the DfES’s conditions of
reducing the administrative burden on teachers, namely that
when data is inputted into a computer system it should be
right first time. One of the aspects of this principle is that
computer data should not have to be re-entered in order to
generate a different view of it.
Examples of mail-merging
The "right first time" principle can be illustrated by the
number of different kinds of document that you could create
using one set of data consisting of school names and addresses
and Head teachers' names:
Notification of funding allocations for anew financial year.
Invitation to a meeting.
Attendance registers for courses/conferences.
End-of-term letter.
Labels for conference packs.
Address labels for the envelopes.
You can even use the same set of data (if set up properly
initially) to send different letters to (for example):
Primary schools/secondary schools.
Schools that have/have not submitted their ICT Strategy.
Head teachers that are invited to a meeting on Monday, and
those invited to the meeting on Tuesday.
Advantages of mail-merging
It can save a lot of time over the long term.
Recipients often feel as if they have been given individual
attention.
Disadvantages of mail-merging
It can take a long time to set up initially, and so may not be
worth it for a one-off job.
Recipients often feel as if they have been given individual
attention. This is not always a good idea.
Terry Freedman runs the website http://www.ictineducation.org, on which he sells the Big Database, consisting of 1008 records and 23 fields -- ideal for practising mail-merging!
Article reviews
Post your review
[ Note : no HTML/URLs - will removed automatically ]
More articles from Computers and Technology > Personal Tech
|
