What is an explaination of advantages of mail-merge?

Answer 1

Mail-merge's main advantage is to save a lot of time.

Fundamentally, mail-merge means taking one form letter, and then using a program/computer, to modify small parts of it based on a list.

Most typically, one has a common letter whom which to sends to several different persons.

Usually, the only things different between each letter would be the addressee, the salutation, and perhaps other minor customizing attributes like "Mr.", "Ms.', etc.

Mail merge uses a list of data with named items corresponding with special parts of the letter with the same named areas.

As each letter is generated or printed, each named entry in the list of data gets placed into the same named place in the letter making it seem as though each letter was customized yet the computer does the customization.

Clearly, when tens or hundreds or more letters (or other types of correspondence) need to be sent to a list of different people or companies, mail-merge can do most of the work for you.

Most businesses, for example, maintain address lists of customers. Using mail-merge, the computer does the letter salutation, possibly other differing content based on customer, and most importantly, takes care of addressing both the letters and envelopes.

Even the holiday cards and letters can be customized and addressed the same way.