CLASS IX-INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (402)-NOTES

PART A: EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS (TOTAL 10 MARKS)

UNIT 1: Communication Skills

UNIT 2: Self-Management Skills
UNIT 3: Information and Communication Technology Skills
UNIT 4: Entrepreneurial Skills
UNIT 5: Green Skills

PART B: SPECIFIC SKILLS (TOTAL 40 MARKS)

UNIT 1: Introduction to IT-ITeS industry

UNIT 2: Data Entry and Keyboarding skills
UNIT 3: Digital Documentation
UNIT 4: Electronic Spreadsheet
UNIT 5: Digital Presentation

PART B: SPECIFIC SKILLS (TOTAL 40 MARKS)

UNIT 3: DIGITAL DOCUMENTATION

SESSION 1: CREATING DOCUMENT USING WORD PROCESSOR

Q. What is a word Processor?
A word processor is a package that processes textual matter and creates organized and flawless
documents. A word processing software provides a general set of tools for entering, editing and
formatting text.

Following are some features of word processor:

1. Fast: Typing text in a word processor becomes speedy as there is no mechanical carriage
movement associated.
2. Editing features: Any type of correction (insertions, deletions, modifications etc.) can be
made easily as and when required.
3. Permanent storage: With word processors, documents can be saved as long as desired. The
saved document can be retrieved whenever desired.
4. Formatting features: The typed text can be made to appear in any form or style (bold, italic,
underline, different fonts etc.). All this is possible due to formatting features of word
processors.
5. Graphics: Most modern word processors provide the facility of incorporating drawings in the
documents which enhances their usefulness.
6. OLE (Object Linking and Embedding): Most modern word processors provide facilities to
link or embed objects in a document. OLE is a program-integration technology that you can
use to share information between programs through objects. Objects are saved entities of
different types like charts, equations, video clips, audio clips, pictures etc.
7. Spell check: Word processors can check spelling mistakes, suggest possible alternatives for
incorrectly spelt words, check for grammatical mistakes and suggest improvements.
8. Mail Merge: The mail merge facility enables us to print a large number of
letters/documents/emails with more or less similar text. For instance, same invitation letter has
to be sent to invitees, only the names and addresses are to be changed. In such cases, mail-
merge proves to be very useful.

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PARTS OF MAIN WINDOW OF WRITER WORD PROCESSOR:
The document window has following major components:
1. Title bar: Located at the top of the screen; it displays the name of the application
(OpenOffice.org Writer) and the active document.
2. Menu bar: Located below the Title bar, it lists the Writer menu options.
3. Formatting toolbar: Formatting toolbar consists of tools frequently used for formatting
document.
4. Standard toolbar: Standard toolbar consists of most frequently used commands and utilities.
5. Ruler bar: Ruler bar allows to format the vertical alignment of text in a document. It is used to
get tab stops, margins and indents.
6. Status bar: The status bar displays information which includes page numbers, the column and
line number on which our cursor is present at any given point of a time.
7. Scroll bar: Scroll bars are used to view different areas of the active window. There are two
scroll bars – a horizontal and a vertical scroll bar.
8. Workarea: The Workarea is the area in the document window wherein we enter the text of our
document.

DOCUMENT VIEWS:
A document view means or refers to a distinct appearance style of the document window on our
display. Modern word processors provide different ways, we can view our documents in depending on
our particular needs.
The Writer word-processor has three document-views available:
1. Print Layout 2. Web Layout and 3. Full Screen

1. Print Layout document view: It is the default view of a document. This view shows the document
as it will look if printed i.e., the borders of the page show, headers and footers are visible at their actual
locations, and the spacing appears proportionate to the printed document.
2. Web Layout document view: The web layout shows the document in a way it will appear online.
We can use this view to create, view, and edit pages as they’ll appear online when opened in a browser.
3. Full Screen document view: In this view, we can read our document using the full screen of our
system. In full screen mode, the document is displayed in the selected view (Print or Web) but the
document fills the entire screen. Toolbars and sidebar are not displayed; in fact, no buttons, menus,
scrollbars etc. are shown.

CREATING A DOCUMENT:
1. Goto start button→All programs→OpenOffice→OpenOffice.org writer (Writer document
window will open).
2. Select the option File from the Menu bar. A drop down menu will be displayed.
3. From the menu, choose the option New. The New submenu will be displayed.
4. From the submenu, click at Text Document option or press Ctrl+N with this, a new document
window will be displayed for you to enter your text.

SAVING A DOCUMENT:
1. Click on the option File from the Menu bar.
2. Select the option Save As from the drop down menu. The Save As dialog box will be
displayed.
3. Type the name of the new file in the File Name text box.
4. Click on Save to complete the process. (By default the new document will be saved as a OOo
Writer document, with an extension .odt (ODF Text Document).

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CLOSING A DOCUMENT:
To close a document on which you were working, Select Close from the File drop down menu and the
document file will be closed.

EDITING A DOCUMENT:
For editing a document, we may need navigation, selection and then making desired changes. By
navigation it means moving around in a document. While editing a document, to make changes at a
particular location, we need to move to a particular position in a document. For this, various keys and
key combinations can be used in Writer.
Cursor Movement:
To move around in Writer document, arrow keys (↑, ↓, ←, →) can be used. We can use Ctrl+Home and
Ctrl+End to move to beginning or end of the document; Ctrl+← and Ctrl+→ to move word by word in
left or right directions; Home and End to move to the beginning and end of line respectively.
Scrolling through Mouse:
To scroll through mouse, we need to use scroll bars and scroll buttons with the help of the mouse
buttons.
Inserting/Overtyping in Documents:
Sometimes we need to insert new word or character in a document without losing the previous
information. In that case, we must make sure that Insert Mode is on. We can check this by prominent
INSRT in the status bar or Writer window. Now place the cursor at the desired position and type
whatever text we want to add. The text will be added and the previous information would be shifted to
right to accommodate new text.
On the other hand, if we want to overtype some word i.e., we want to delete a word and retype some
thing in place of it, then turn insert mode off by pressing Ins or Insert key on the keyboard. As soon as
we do it, the Writer window shows it by showing OVER in the status bar. Now place the cursor
(insertion point) at the desired position and type whatever we want to. Notice that the newly typed text
overtypes the previous text i.e., two actions happen: (i) old text is getting deleted and (ii) in space of the
old text, new text is getting typed.

SESSION 2: APPLY EDITING FEATURES

UNDO and REDO:
The Writer also provides two buttons Undo and Redo. We can use Undo (shortcut key Ctrl+Z) for
undoing most recent actions. However, if we want to undo an Undo action, use Redo (shortcut key
Ctrl+Y).
Text Selection:
Sometimes we require to perform various operations that are performed on a block of text. (By block, it
means marked or selected piece of text). We can move an entire block to a new position or we may
delete an entire block of text or we may copy a block of text.
Block Operations (Cut, Copy, Paste) in Writer:
In Writer, we can select text by holding down SHIFT and pressing the key that moves the insertion
point i.e., arrow keys, page up, page down etc. keys.
To extend a selection Press
One character to the right Shift + Right Arrow
One character to the left Shift + Left Arrow
To the end of a word Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow
To the beginning of a word Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow
To the end of a line Shift + End
To the beginning of a line Shift + Home
One line down Shift + Down Arrow
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One line UP Shift + UP Arrow
To the end of a paragraph Ctrl + Shift + Down Arrow
To the beginning of a paragraph Ctrl + Shift + UP Arrow
Once screen down Shift + Page down
Once screen UP Shift + Page UP
To the beginning of a document Ctrl + Shift + Home
To include the entire document Ctrl + A

Copying selected Text (shortcut for Copy: Ctrl+C; for Paste: Ctrl+V):
To copy text in Writer, follow these steps:
(i) select the desired text holding SHIFT key.
(ii) Now right click on the mouse a shortcut menu is displayed, choose copy from here. (Alternatively,
we can click Copy button on the Standard toolbar.)
(iii) Now place the cursor at the desired position and choose Paste either from the shorthand menu of
selected text or click the Paste button on the Standard toolbar and our selected text will get copied at
the desired position.
Moving the selected text (shortcut for Cut: Ctrl+X):
To move selected text in Writer, follow these steps:
(i) Select the text.
(ii) Choose Cut either from shorthand menu (that gets displayed by right clicking on the mouse) or Cut
from Standard toolbar.
(iii) Place the cursor (insertion point) where the text is to be moved.
(iv) Click Paste (either from shorthand menu or Paste from Standard toolbar and our selected text gets
moved at the desired position.
Selecting a Vertical Block of Text:
If we have some text that is separated by spaces or tabs, we can select a vertical block or “column”
from it using OOo’s block selection mode. For vertical text selection, we need to change the selection
mode to block selection mode by using the following procedure:
1. Click command Edit→Selection Mode→Block Area or press shortcut Alt+Shift+F8.
2. Now drag over the vertical block of text to be selected.

Find and Replace text:

Sometimes we need to search a particular text or word in the document. Or sometimes our situation
requires the replacements of some text or word. All word processors provide Find and Replace utilities
that can be used for this purpose.
The sequence for finding text is:
1. On the Edit menu, click Find & Replace.
2. In the Search for box, enter the text we want to search for.
3. Click Find button.
If we want to search for whole words, the we must click the checkbox Whole Words only and if we
want to match the case (upper case/lower case) of letter, click the box Match case. To cancel a search
in progress, press ESC.

The sequence for replacing text is:

1. On the Edit menu, click Find & Replace.
2. In the Search for box, enter the text we want to search for.
3. In the Replace with box, enter the replacement text.
4. Click either of the Find, Replace, or Replace All buttons.

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Inserting Special Characters and Non-printing Characters:
Sometimes we need to insert special characters in our document such as €, µ, £ etc. There are no keys
available on the keyboard for these. To insert such special characters, Place the insert pointer at desired
position and then do the following:
1. Use command Insert menu → Special character
2. Next select desired font and character from the dialog box that appears.
3. After selecting desired character, click OK.
Jump to a Given Page Number:
Sometimes we need to go to a specific page number. Rather than scrolling down, we can use the
Navigator to directly go to a specific page.
For this, we need to do the following:
1. Press F5 to open the Navigator window.
2. Once open, type the page number in the Page Number field, and press Enter.
Using Grammar and Spelling check:
While typing in the documents, we may have committed some typographical and grammatical errors.
To rectify such errors, we would want a tool that can help us figure out the spelling mistakes or
grammatical mistakes.
Grammar and Spell Check along with Autocorrect (automatic correction of common mistakes) and
AutoText let us housekeep our document i.e., cleaning of unwanted errors.
Spelling checking and making corrections is done with the help of internally available dictionaries.
Writer provides two ways to check spelling and grammar:
I. If AutoSpellCheck is activated, as we type, Writer will automatically check our document and
underline possible spelling and grammatical errors. To correct an error, display a shortcut
menu, and then select the correction we want.
II. When we finish creating a document, we can have Writer search the document for spelling and
grammatical errors. When Writer finds a possible error, we can correct it and then continue the
check. This can be done either through the Spelling and Grammar option of Tools menu or
by clicking at ABC button of Standard toolbar.
To check spelling automatically as we type, do the following:
1. Activate automatic spell-check by clicking the AutoSpellCheck icon on the Standard toolbar.
2. Right-click a word with a red wavy underline, and then choose a suggested replacement word
from the list, or from the Autocorrect submenu.
3. If we choose a word from the Autocorrect submenu, the underlined word and the replacement
word are automatically added to the AutoCorrect list for the current language.
4. We can also add the underlined word to our custom dictionary by choosing Add option from
the shortcut menu.
Checking Spelling Manually:
We can also manually check the spelling of a text selection or the entire document by following the
steps given below. The spell-check starts at the current cursor position, or at the beginning of the text
selection.
1. Click in the document, or select the text that we want to check.
2. Choose Tools → Spelling and Grammar.
3. When a possible spelling error is encountered, the SpellCheck dialog opens and
OpenOffice.org offers some suggested corrections.
4. Do one of the following:
a) To accept a correction, click the suggestion, and then click Change.
b) We can also edit the sentence in the upper text box, and then click Change to accept
this editing.
c) To add the unknown word to a user-defined dictionary, click Add.

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USING SYNONYMS AND THESAURUS:
The thesaurus is a list that contains synonyms or alternative words and phrases. To use it for synonyms,
we need to do the following:
1. Select the word or phrase we want to find alternatives for.
2. Select Tools → Language → Thesaurus or press the shortcut key as Control+F7.
3. Click on a meaning to show alternative words and phrases for that meaning of the word.
4. Select the desired synonym to use it.

SESSION 3: APPLY FORMATTING FEATURES

FORMATTING A DOCUMENT:
The general arrangement of text is known as formatting. Formatting provides documents a neater and
more legible outlook. There are several aspects of text formatting viz. character formatting, paragraph
formatting and page formatting.

Character formatting:
To enhance the appearance of our document, the character formatting plays an important role as it
decides how individual characters in the document should appear. The character formatting is
concerned about making decisions regarding the fonts and font-sizes, text attributes
(bold/italics/underline etc.), and text positioning (superscript/subscript) etc.
The Writer offers quite many text attributes (effects) which are all available at the same place. That is,
we can apply them through single command only.
To format characters in Writer, follow these steps:
i. Select the text to be formatted.
ii. Click on Character… option of Format menu to display the Character dialog box.
iii. From this dialog box, choose the desired font, size, and typeface.
iv. Click OK to conform, Cancel to abandon.

For bold/italics/underline effect, you can either click B/I/U in formatting toolbar or use shortcut keys
Ctrl+B (for bold), Ctrl+I (for italics), Ctrl+U (for underline).
We can choose different font effects such as font color, shadow, overline, underline, strikethrough etc.
by clicking at the tab Font Effects.
In the same way, we can select the text’s position such as to make it superscript or subscript from the
Position tab.
Changing Case in Writer:
OpenOffice Writer offers us mainly four types of case conversions:
i. Lowercase e.g., this is sample text.
ii. Uppercase or Capital e.g., THIS IS SAMPLE TEXT.
iii. Sentence case e.g., This is sample text.
iv. Title/Capitalize every word e.g., This Is Sample Text.
v. Toggle case e.g., tHIS iS sAMPLE tEXT.
vi. Small Capitals e.g., THIS IS SAMPLE TEXT.

First two types of case-conversions can be done in two ways:

(i) To change the case of text to uppercase or lowercase you need to first select the text and
then click at command Format → Change case → Uppercase/Lowercase as per our
need.
(ii) Alternatively, we can select desired case from Effects box from Font Effects tab of
Character formatting dialog box. Recall that Character formatting dialog box appears by
clicking at command Format → Character.

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Changing Font/Text Colour
To change the colour of some text all we need to do is:
(i) Select the text whose colour is to be changed.
(ii) Click Format menu → Character… option
(iii) In the character dialog, click at tab Font Effects.
(iv) Select desired Font colour from Font color box.

Paragraph formatting:
The paragraph formatting involves controlling the appearance of text in a paragraph. Some aspects that
contribute in paragraph formatting are : text alignment, tab stops, paragraph indentation, line spacing,
spacing between paragraph, and borders and shading.
Text Alignment in Writer:
The OOo Writer offers us four types of text alignments viz. left flush, right flush, centered, and
justified. To align a paragraph in desired manner, firstly select the paragraph and choose the desired
alignment button from formatting toolbar.
Alternatively, you can select the paragraph and then click on Paragraph option of Format menu. It will
display paragraph dialog box and from here we can choose the desired alignment from the Alignment
tab.
Paragraph Indentation in Writer:
To indent a paragraph in a Writer document, select the paragraph and from the Paragraph dialog box of
Format menu. We must make sure that Indents & Spacing tab is active before we set the indent for the
paragraph. From this tab, we can specify different indents:
 To specify left indent i.e., Before text indent, type the indent measurement in the box next to
Before text in the Indent section. For positive indent, specify positive value and for negative
indent, specify negative value.
 Similarly, for right indent i.e., After text indent, type the indent-measurement in the box next
to After text in Indent section.
 For First line indent, specify the value in the box next to First line.
 To specify hanging indent, you need to do two things i.e.,
 Specify a positive Before text indent (to work as hanging index)
 Specify a negative First line indent.
Line spacing in Writer:
Line spacing determines the space between two lines of text in a paragraph. In Writer, to change line
spacing of paragraph (default is single line spacing), select the paragraph and then use Line spacing
option in the Paragraph dialog box (Format→Paragraph’s command).
Paragraph Border and Shading:
In order to have a border around a paragraph, click in the paragraph or select the paragraph. Then use
Format → Paragraph command to open Paragraph dialog.
Under the Borders tab, you can choose the line-arrangement, line-style, line color for the paragraph
border. If we want to give shading/shadow to our paragraph, we can select the desired shadow style
from the Borders tab itself.
Inserting Breaks (Page Break/Line Break/Column Break):
When we type text in our text document in Writer, by default the text moves to next line only if the line
is fully fille4d with the text (the Word Wrap feature). Similarly, text will move to next page only if a
page is fully filled with the text and same applies to columns as well.
But in some cases, we may want to end a line or page or column, even if the line or page or column is
still incomplete and more text can fit into it. In other words, we want to manually insert a
line/page/column break.
We can do this by using Insert menu → Manual Break command as per following:

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 (i) Place the cursor at the position where we want to insert the break.
(ii) Click Insert menu → Manual Break command.
(iii) It will show Insert Break dialog, where we can choose which break we want to force, i.e., for
line break, choose Line; for Page break, choose Page and for column break, choose Column
from the Insert Break dialog.
(iv) Writer will internally enter a special code that will mark the break in the line/column or page
and text will move to the next line if we inserted a line break; to the next column if we inserted
a column break and to the next page if we inserted page break.
Page Formatting:
Making settings for page design and layout (i.e., about page size, orientation, margins etc.) is called
page formatting. The page formatting in Writer can be controlled through Page Style dialog box which
gets invoked by clicking at Page option of Format dropdown menu. Once in this dialog, we need to
click on Page tab.
Page Size (Paper Size)
To set the page size, click at the Page tab of Page Style dialog box and choose any of the predefined
paper size from Format box of Paper format section. We can choose desired Page-orientation by
clicking at one of the desired orientation buttons – Portrait or Landscape.
Margins
In Writer, we can set margins in two ways:
(i) Through ruler bars, and
(ii) Through Page Style dialog box.

(i) Setting Margins through Ruler Bars:

a) Move the mouse over the area where the white ruler changes to gray.
b) When the cursor becomes a double-ended arrow, click with the mouse and drag the margin
indicator to the desired location.
c) Release the mouse when the margin is set.

(ii) Through Page Style dialog box: To set margins through Page Style dialog box, choose page from
Format menu to invoke Page Style dialog box and then follow these steps:
a) Select Page tab on the Page Style dialog box.
b) Either type the desired measurement for the margins in the corresponding boxes or
increment/decrement the default measurements using increment/decrement buttons till we get
our desired result.
Headers and Footers:
In OOo Writer, headers and footers can be inserted using the Header and Footer options of the Insert
menu.
In header and footer area, we can type text, paste, graphics, format it, insert page number, date/time etc.
1) To add a header to a page, choose Insert → Header. And to add footer to a page, choose
Insert → Footer.
2) Alternatively, we can also choose Format → Page, click the Header or Footer tab, and then
select Header on or Footer on to add header or footer.
3) Type the heading in the Header box, we may use many of the standard text formatting options
such as font face, size, bold, italics, etc.
4) Click the Insert → Fields command to view a list of quick options available.
5) When we are finished adding headers and footer, click the Close button on the toolbar.
Numbering pages:
In order to number pages, usually the page-numbers are added to page footer. We may even add it to
header or place of our choice.

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  To number pages (in footer), firstly make sure that footer area is added i.e., we must have used
command Insert → Footer command.
 Now click Insert → Fields → Page Number to add page number to footer.

Columns:
To have multiple columns in our documents, we need to use command Format menu → Columns. It
will display columns dialog where we can specify how many columns we want and other settings like
column widths etc.

SESSION 4: WORKING WITH TABLES

A Table is an arrangement of text in the form of columns and row. A table can be useful for enhancing
our document. A table consists of vertical columns and horizontal rows. The intersection of a column
and a row is called a cell.
To Insert a Table using Table Button:
1) Place the insertion point where we want to insert a table.
2) Click the arrow of Table button on the Standard toolbar, then drag while holding down the
mouse button to highlight the number of rows and columns we want in our table.
3) When the displayed grid represents the desired number of rows and columns, release the mouse
button. An empty table will be inserted at the insertion point.
To Insert a Table using Insert Menu:
1) Place the insertion point where we want to insert the table.
2) Click the Table icon on Standard toolbar or select Table command from Insert drop-down
menu or press Ctrl+F12.
3) Specify the number of columns and rows we want to insert in Insert Table dialog box.
4) Click on OK. An empty table will be inserted at the insertion point.
Inserting Rows:
Once the table is drawn, we can insert additional rows by the following procedure:
1. Place the cursor in the row we want to be adjacent to the new row.
2. Select Table → Insert → Rows…
3. In the Insert Rows dialog, specify number of rows to be inserted and the Position i.e.,
Before/After, where rows are to be inserted.
Inserting Columns:
Much like inserting a row, we can add a new column by a similar procedure:
1. Place the cursor in a cell we want to be adjacent to where the new column will be added.
2. Select Table → Insert → Columns…
3. Now specify number of columns to be inserted and position where they are to be inserted as we
did for rows.
Deleting Rows and Columns:
To delete rows or columns of a table, all we need to do is to select the row/column to be deleted and the
select Table → Delete → Rows or Columns.
Merging and splitting cells:
Merging refers to combining two or more table cells into one cell and splitting means the opposite, i.e.,
dividing one cell into two or more table cells.
In Writer, to merge a group of cells into one cell:
1. Select the table-cells to be merged.
2. Click Merge Cells icon on Table toolbar
3. Or you may even select Table → Merge cells from the menu bar after step 1.
To split a cell into multiple cells:

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 1. Position the cursor inside the cell to be split.
2. Click Split cells icon on Table toolbar Or we may select Table → Split Cells from the menu
bar.
3. Now Writer will display Split Cells dialog. Here specify in how many cells the cell is to be
split. A cell can be split either horizontally (create more rows) or vertically (create more
columns). Specify these details in this dialog and click OK.
Formatting Tables and AutoFormat:
Like other formatting, Table formatting is also essential as it gives the desired look and feel to the
table-data. Also, it makes a table more presentable and readable. Formatting a table means giving a
certain look to the table by formatting:
 Its layout such as table border, shading etc.
 And formatting the contents of its cells.
Formatting a Table’s layout:
To format a table’s layout, we can apply borders and shading to it. For this, we need to select the cells
or entire table on which we want to apply the border and shading and follow the steps given below:
(i) Select the cell or range of cells or the entire table to be modified. We can select a single cell by
clicking in it; select a range with click and drag; or select a row or column using menu or
toolbar choices.
(ii) Now right-click the selection (whatever we have selected) and select Table from the shortcut
menu.
Alternatively select Table menu → Table Properties command after selecting cells/table.
(iii) It will display the Table dialog.
(iv) From the Table Format dialog box, select the Borders tab to add border to selected
cells/table to modify or select the Background tab to add background to selected cells/table.
Auto Formatting a Table:
Besides altering the structure of our table, we can also change its overall look. This can include
changing the border lines around the cells, and the colour inside of the cells.
The easy way to make this change is with the AutoFormat option. AutoFormat means choosing one
table design from a list of available performatted table-designs. To use AutoFormat, follow the
following procedure
 Click anywhere inside the table to select it.
 Click Table → AutoFormat…
 We will now get a window where we can pick from any pre-designed formats.
 When we have made our choice, click OK.
 Now the table will be changed to the new look as per our selection.

SESSION 5: USING PRINT OPTIONS

Printing options:
Before we print a document, we should view it to get an idea as to how it will look when printed. This
can be done through Page Preview. The page preview provides its own toolbar to let us decide how the
document is displayed within the preview. We can view one or more pages at a time, magnify or reduce
the size of the page on the screen and check page breaks.
To start a preview of the document before printing:
 Click the Page Preview button on the Standard Toolbar or select Page Preview from the File
menu.
Printing Brochures:
If we need to print a booklet or brochure, we can easily use Writer to print booklets and brochures.
To print a brochure in Writer, do the following:
1. Open the document we want to print.

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 2. Set the page orientation to Landscape under page formatting.
3. Click File menu → Print command.
4. It will open the print dialog, here select the Page Layout tab.
5. From the layout section, choose the “Brochure” button.
6. From the Page sides section, select Back sides/Left pages from the “Page sides” drop-down.
7. Now click Print button to print the left-side pages.
8. Now the left pages of our document will get printed. Place these printed pages again in the
printer tray for printing the right-side pages.
9. Click File → Print command again, then select Front sides/Right pages from the “Page
sides” drop-down and click Print button to print the right-side pages.
10. And, we have our printed brochure in our hands.

SESSION 6: MAIL MERGE

Q. WHAT IS MAIL MERGE?
Mail merge is a way to take same text (e.g., a letter) we’ve written and send it to a whole bunch of
people, but personalizing it with information about them so they might think that we typed that letter
personally for them.
We can also use mail merge to take a list of people’s mailing addresses and generate labels or
envelopes with the address for a different person on each label or envelope.
In other words, we can say that Mail Merge feature automatically merges a common text with a
set of data coming from a database to produce unique letters.

COMPONENTS OF MAIL MERGE:

The three main components of the merging process are :
1. the Main document
2. the Data source and
3. the Merged document.

1. the Main document: It contains the main body of our letter, field names and merge instructions.
The basic information in the main document remains the same.

2. the Data source (Address database): It stores the information to be brought into the main
document. The Data source table contains a column for each category of information. The header row
is the first row of the table, it contains field names, which indicate the type of information in each
column.

3. the Merged document: The Writer uses a main text document and an address database to produce a
Merged document.

Creating Data Source:

To create a data source (address database) as per our needs, follow the steps given below.
1. Click File → New → Database command
2. Database wizard will start up. In its first step, select Create a new database and click Next>>
3. Click Finish in the next step and we’ll be asked to save the database. Specify name of the
database and click save.
4. Once we have specified the name for our new database, we’ll be taken to database window. In
the database window, under tables tab, click at the option: Use Wizard to Create Table…
5. In the first step, we’ll asked to choose category of table, a sample table and fields that we want
to pick from the sample table in our own database table.

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 6. In the next two steps, keep the default settings and simply press Next>>. When we reach step
4, we’ll be asked to specify name for our database table. Specify the name and click Finish.
Don’t change any other setting i.e., the option Insert data immediately should be selected.
7. Now, we’ll be taken to data view of the table, where we can type the actual data for our table as
we did.
8. Once we are through, save the table by pressing Ctrl+S and click Close button.
9. In the same way, close the database window.
10. The data source for mail merge use is ready.

Using Mail Merge:

Before we start using mail merge, we should be clear about the following things:
a) What text we want to put in the main text document,
b) the data in the data source
c) what all fields are to be picked from the data source and merged with main text document.
Creating Main Document:
We can proceed to the following steps to create the main document and use mail merge.
1. Start a new document
(File → New → Text document of Ctrl+N)
Initially type text without field names
2. In the beginning, type the text of main text document WITHOUT the field-names.
Insert fields from the data source
3. Now in the text that we typed in previous step, we need to insert fields from our data source.
a) For this, first we need to click the command Insert → Fields → Other… It will invoke
Fields dialog, where from Database tab, select Type as Mail merge fields (left box) and
expand the data source (right box) that we created by clicking on plus icon in front of it.
We expanded CLIENTS database as we created our data source by this very name only.
b) Once all the fields in our data source are visible, we can drag them to desired place in our
main text document.
c) Once through, click Close button of Fields dialog.
Start Mail Merge procedure
4. Now, click at command Tools → Mail Merge wizard.
5. Mail Merge wizard dialog will pop up. In this dialog, click Next>> in the first step while
retaining the default setting i.e., Use the current document.
6. In the next step, choose desired document type. We selected Letter then click Next>>
7. In the next two steps, simple click Next>>. When we reach step 6 i.e., Edit document, if we
want, we can make changes in the text of our document by clicking the Edit document button
in right pane. Then click Next>>.
8. Click Next>> in the eight step to reach ninth step, where we can specify whether to save or
print or send the merged documents.
9. Click Finish and we will get the merged documents.

Creating labels:
We can also create labels using mail merge feature by first creating the data source and then by
following the steps given below:
1. Click command File → New → Labels.
2. In the Labels dialog, select data source name, table and fields. Move the fields to label by
clicking left arrow button.
3. Click New Document button and save the new document.
4. Now use File → Print command to print this file to get the desired labels.

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