PUB2000: How to Use the Microsoft Outlook Express Address Book as a Mail-Merge Data Source

This article describes how to use the Microsoft Outlook Express Address Book as a data source for a mail-merge publication in Microsoft Publisher 2000.

Microsoft Publisher 2000 can use a variety of data sources to create a mail merge publication. One of the most popular methods to create a mail-merge publication is to use the addresses that are stored in the Outlook Express Address Book.

To use the Outlook Express Address Book as a mail-merge data source in Publisher 2000, you must first export the Address Book as a comma separated value file.

To export the Outlook Express Address Book as a comma separated value file:

1. On the File menu, point to Export, and then click Address Book.
2. In the Address Book Export Tool dialog box, click Text File (Comma Separated Values).
3. Click Export.
4. Click Browse.
5. In the Save in box, click the folder in which you want to save the file.
6. In the File name box, type a name for the file.
7. Click Save, and then click Next.
8. Click to select the check boxes next to the fields that you want to make available for the mail-merge publication, and then click Finish.
   
   You should receive the following message:
   Address book export process has completed.
9. Click OK, and then click Close.
10. Close any remaining open dialog boxes on the screen.

To use the exported file as a mail-merge data source in Publisher 2000:

1. Start Publisher 2000, and then open a publication.
2. Create a text frame in which you want to enter the address information.
3. On the Mail Merge menu, click Open Data Source.
4. Click Merge information from another type of file.
5. In the Files of type list, click Text Files (*.txt, *.csv, *.tab, *.asc).
6. Click the file that you exported from Outlook Express.
7. When you receive the following message
   Do you want to use the entries in the first row of your data as field names?
   click Yes.
8. When you are prompted to select a separator character, click Comma, and then click OK.
9. Insert the merge fields into your publication, and then click Close.
10. On the Mail Merge menu, click Merge.
11. In the Preview Data dialog box, scroll through the merged data to verify that it appears correctly in the target publication.
12. To apply filters to select a subset of the chosen addresses, click Filter or Sort on the Mail Merge menu.
13. To print the merged data, click Print Merge on the File menu.