Mail merge > Selecting records for a mail merge

If required, you can specify exactly which records of a database are to be selected for the mail merge. To do so, open the database module with the ribbon command Mailings | group Recipients | Select recipients and select the desired records.

Note: If you have not previously assigned a database – as described in Assigning a database to a document – you first choose the command Select recipients to open the file dialog box and select a database. The database module will then open.

There are three ways to select data records, which can be combined to your liking. You can, for example, first select data records by means of a condition and then manually exclude some data records from the selection.

The following selection methods are available in the database module (in the group Records):

▪Selecting individual records manually

With the ribbon command Select | Current record, you can include the current record in the selection or remove it. If you choose this command for an unselected record, it will be selected and vice versa.

With the ribbon command Select | Select all records and Select | Deselect all records, you can select or deselect all records at once.

The ribbon command Select | Invert selection deselects all selected records and selects all unselected records.

▪Selecting by record numbers

With the ribbon command Select | By record numbers, you specify a range of record numbers to be selected or deselected.

▪Selecting by condition

The ribbon command Select | By condition lets you apply selection conditions such as "Select all Smiths" or "Select all from New York".

For more information on these selection methods, see the following pages.

Note: Write saves the selection permanently. Thus, it permanently remembers which data records are selected even after you exit and restart Write.

Navigating between selected records

You can jump to the previous or next selected record by using the icons and in the group Navigation or the shortcut keys Ctrl+Alt+PageUpá and Ctrl+Alt+PageDownâ.

Tip: Furthermore, you can use the ribbon command Show only selected records in the group View to hide all records that are not selected