3 ms·
"Mail Merge" is such an unintuitive phrase. .. When I first heard it I had no idea this was anything to do with sending a templated word document to a email rec
by totetsu 4y ago
"Mail Merge" is such an unintuitive phrase. .. When I first heard it I had no idea this was anything to do with sending a templated word document to a email recipient list, auto filling in their personal details.
- frameset 4y agoIt can also do printed letters, filling in the physical address at the head of the letter. You can then print out the merged documents.
- Tomte 4y agoIndeed. I like the German "Serienbrief" (“mail series”) much better.
- totetsu 4y agothe German for word processing textverabeitung probably sounds a bit more natural also.
- neilv 4y agoIt was originally for "merging" document templates with tables (e.g., mailing list of people's names and postal addresses), for customized paper mailings, mailing labels, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordStar#Add-ons_and_companion_products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordStar#Add-ons_and_companion... I don't know whether the term predates its use by WordStar and microcomputers. It sounds very batch-processing. (Source: Had WordStar 3.3 for generic MS-DOS as kid, bought a surplus copy of an Epson QX-10 edition of Mail Merge for $5, somehow got that turned into a copy I could run, for my Alex P. Keaton adolescent business ventures.)
- totetsu 4y agoWow word star with mail-merge seems to have cost almost $500 in 1981...