The CHDB church membership database software can create several different files for use in mail-merge operations. Mail-merge is the process of creating many identical letters, envelopes, labels, etc., but with a different individual address on each one. It has come to our attention that many church secretaries are not aware of how to use these files, so we have put together this set of instructions to help.

Before the files can be used in Word, they have to be created by using the CHDB software. Here are the steps.

1. Start CHDB and select "Utilities" from the Master Menu.
   
   
2. Select "Mail Merge Files" from the Utilities Menu and then the group you wish to use.
   
   
3. Follow the steps on screen. When prompted for the type of format, select "Word Format". Notice that the file will have a ".txt" extension on the filename.
   
   
4. After CHDB has completed creating the file, go to Microsoft Word and start a new document.
   
   
5. Select the "Tools" menu and then "Mail Merge". A helper screen will pop up with three buttons, Main Document, Data Source, & Merge the data with the document.
   
   
6. Click on the Main Document-Create button and select the type of document you want.
   
   
7. Select either the current "Active Window" or a "New Document Window" to hold your document. At this point, the "Data Source - Get Data" button will become available.
   
   
8. Click on the "Get Data" button in the Data Source area, and select "Open Data Source".
   
   
9. Use the Open Data Source window to choose the path to your CHDB software. This is located in a folder named CHDB on the C: drive of your computer (unless you changed the path when you installed it). Be sure the "Files of type" box is set to show text files (*.txt). Select the text file you created in step 3.
   
   
10. Click "OK" in the "Header Record Delimiters" window that pops up. At this point you will receive a message saying that no mail merge fields were found in your main document (unless you already edited some in) and that you need to edit the main document.
    
    
11. Click on the "Edit Main Document" button and insert the fields as you would for any other mail merge operation. When you've completed your document, click on "Tools - Mail Merge - Merge", and the names created in CHDB will be merged with your document, creating a new letter, label, etc. for each name in the data file.

CHDB puts a time and date stamp at the end of each file it creates that lets you know how "fresh" the data is. This information will be seen by Word as incomplete records in the mail merge operation. Don't worry about this. You can either delete the documents that contain these stamps, or elect to not print them.

If you have any questions, you may e-mail lorenh@kcbaptist.org. We hope this has been helpful.

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Southern Baptist Churches of Kansas City