Highlighting Mail Merge Fields

Hopefully, when you preview your mail merge documents before you finalize the merge, your merge fields won’t be readily obvious; you will likely want the documents you create to appear as if they were created individually. Of course, this will make it more difficult to check the accuracy of your work, both in terms of putting the right information in the right place and getting the spacing right. To aid in proofing merge documents, Word gives you the option of highlighting the merge fields in your document. (Don’t worry, though, they won’t be highlighted when you print the documents).

1. From the Tools menu, select Options
2. Click the View tab
3. In the Show section click the drop down box below Field Shading:
4. Select Always
5. Click OK

Note: Remember that the merge fields will only be highlighted in the main document window. If you merge to a new document, the fields will no longer be highlighted. Why? They are no longer fields that are dependant on a data source – the data itself has been inserted in the document.