Walter McElveen writes:

I want to print addresses on envelopes or post cards for some of my Contacts in Outlook 2003. I can pull up a category and get all the contacts, how do I then print an envelope for each one? Is it a long Mail Merge procedure using Word?

Outlook has many features built in to help improve efficiency, including a Mail and Label Merge attribute that works directly with your Outlook Contacts. This feature is very customizable and allows you to select specific contacts, or all of them, to merge to a form letter, envelope, or catalog, just to name a few, as well as choose which specific fields you want to merge.

You can check this out for yourself by selecting the Contacts folder, then selecting Tools, and Mail Merge. Do some experimentation and see how much time this infrequently-used feature can save on tasks such as automating that letter you create each month, or on that large mailing you need send out.

Thank you Walter, for your question about an often under-utilized feature in Outlook.

Francine Otterson is the President of the San Diego Outlook User Group and a Microsoft Outlook MVP. She has been in the IT industry for over 10 years, providing technical support, software customization solutions and training in corporate settings, and as a consultant. She balances her work around her daughter and husband in sunny San Diego, California.