Merging Faxes

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You can create a template document that contains fields for individual recipient’s and fax number, and merge the template with text documents or “data sources” to fax a personalized letter to a large number of people. This is called Fax Merging.

If you know how to use Word’s Mail Merge, Fax Merging is easy. If you don't already know how to mail merge, use the Word wizard to learn how. The steps involved in Merging Faxes are:

Terms and Concepts

Following are explanations of some key terms and concepts.

Data model— Our data model is a table with rows and columns. A column has a name and defines a category of data. A row contains values for each column. For example, there might be columns named “FirstName” and “FaxNumber” and rows with values such as “Angelica” and “5305551212”.

Data source— We use the general term “data source” rather than “database,” because the values might be stored in an ASCII file, another Word document, an Excel spreadsheet, a FaxPress phonebook, or a dBase database.

Field— When you create a Word document, a “field” is a substitution variable that you insert into a document.

Record— A “record” is either a database entry or a line in a text or document file that contains values for the “fields” that you will use in a Word document.

Merged document— “Merged documents” are the end result and are what is actually faxed out. In other words, documents have “fields,” data sources have “records”, and when you fax merge, “record” values are placed in “fields” to create multiple “merged documents.”