Summary

Mail merge turns a spreadsheet of addresses into a full sheet of printed labels in one pass. This article walks through preparing the Excel list, choosing the right label product, inserting the address layout, and printing — plus the two things that trip people up every time: the Update Labels button and disappearing ZIP code zeros.

Labels are one of several outputs on Word's Start Mail Merge menu. If you want letters or individual emails out of this same spreadsheet, the machinery is identical up to the finish — see How to Mail Merge from Excel to Word.

In this guide

• 1. Prepare Your Excel Address List
• 2. Start the Label Merge in Word
• 3. Connect Your Address List
• 4. Insert the Address Block and Update Labels
• 5. Preview Results and Fix the Details
• 6. Run a Test Print on Plain Paper
• 7. Finish and Print the Labels

Before You Start

• Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, desktop versions. Mail merge is not available in Word for the web.
• A spreadsheet containing your addresses, one recipient per row.
• A pack of label sheets. Note the vendor and product number printed on the box.
• No admin rights required.

Instructions

1. Prepare Your Excel Address List

Word reads your spreadsheet as a table of fields. A messy sheet produces messy labels, so fix it here rather than after 90 labels print wrong.

1. Open the spreadsheet in Excel.

2. Confirm row 1 holds column headers and nothing else — First Name, Last Name, Company, Address 1, Address 2, City, State, ZIP. Word turns each header into a merge field, so a blank or duplicated header gives you an unusable field name.

3. Delete any blank rows inside the data. Word treats the first blank row as the end of the list and silently ignores everything below it.

4. Delete any merged cells and any title row above the headers. Both break the column structure Word depends on.

5. Keep every address on a single row. Splitting one recipient across two rows produces two labels.

6. Fix ZIP codes that lost their leading zero — a Boston 02134 stored as a number shows as 2134. In a spare column, enter:

   =TEXT(A2,"00000")

   Replace A2 with the first cell of your ZIP column, fill the formula down, then copy the new column, right-click the original ZIP column and choose Paste Options > Values. Delete the helper column afterwards.

7. Save and close the Excel file. Word cannot always read a file that is still open in Excel.

Note: Formatting the ZIP column as Text after the zeros are already gone does not bring them back — Excel discarded them when the value was typed. The TEXT formula rebuilds them.

2. Start the Label Merge in Word

Tell Word you are printing labels and which label product you are using.

1. Open Word and create a Blank document.
2. Click the Mailings tab on the ribbon.
3. In the Start Mail Merge group at the far left, click Start Mail Merge and choose Labels.
4. The Label Options dialog opens. Under Printer information, leave Page printers selected for a normal office laser or inkjet printer.
5. Open the Label vendors dropdown and choose the brand printed on your box — Avery US Letter, Avery A4/A5, or your own vendor.
6. In the Product number list, select the number from the box. 5160 is the standard US address label, 30 per sheet at 1" × 2-5/8". The Label information panel on the right confirms the type, height, width, and page size — check these against the packaging.
7. Click OK. Your document changes into a grid of empty cells, one per label.

Tip: If the grid is invisible, the table gridlines are switched off. Click inside any cell, open the Layout tab that appears at the end of the ribbon, and click View Gridlines in the Table group. Dashed outlines appear showing exactly where each label sits. These guides never print.

Note: If your product number is not listed, click New Label in the Label Options dialog and enter the margins, pitch, height, and width printed on the label packaging. Give it a name and it stays available for future merges.

3. Connect Your Address List

Point Word at the Excel file and choose the worksheet holding the addresses.

1. On the Mailings tab, click Select Recipients > Use an Existing List.
2. Browse to your Excel file and click Open.
3. In the Select Table dialog, choose the worksheet holding the addresses — it appears as the sheet name followed by a dollar sign, such as Sheet1$.
4. Confirm First row of data contains column headers is checked at the bottom of the dialog.
5. Click OK. The greyed-out buttons in the Write & Insert Fields group turn active, and every label after the first now reads «Next Record».
6. To exclude anyone, click Edit Recipient List in the Start Mail Merge group and clear the checkbox beside their row. Click OK.

Tip: To make Word honour Excel's displayed formatting — currency, dates, and ZIP codes with leading zeros — go to File > Options > Advanced, scroll to the General section, and check Confirm file format conversion on open. Repeat step 1, and when the Confirm Data Source dialog appears choose MS Excel Worksheets via DDE (*.xls). Word then pulls the values exactly as Excel shows them.

4. Insert the Address Block and Update Labels

Build the address layout once, then copy it to every label on the sheet.

1. Click inside the first label in the top-left corner of the grid.
2. In the Write & Insert Fields group, click Address Block.
3. The Insert Address Block dialog opens. Choose a name format under Insert recipient's name in this format, and tick or clear Insert company name and Insert postal address to match what you want on the label.
4. Check the Preview pane on the right. Use the arrow buttons above it to page through several real recipients.
5. If the preview shows blank lines or the wrong data, click Match Fields at the bottom. Word lists its required fields on the left and your Excel column headers on the right — set Address 1 to your street column, City to your city column, and so on. Click OK.
6. Click OK to close Insert Address Block. The first label now reads «AddressBlock».
7. Click Update Labels in the Write & Insert Fields group. This is the step everyone forgets. Every remaining label immediately fills with «Next Record»«AddressBlock».

Verification: Before moving on, confirm the last label on the sheet shows «Next Record»«AddressBlock» and not blank space. If the rest of the grid is still empty, Update Labels did not run — click it again with the cursor inside the first label.

Note: Any change you make to the first label after this point — font, size, spacing, an extra line — must be followed by another click on Update Labels, or it applies to that one label only.

5. Preview Results and Fix the Details

Step through real records and catch missing fields before anything prints.

1. In the Preview Results group, click Preview Results. The merge codes disappear and real names and addresses take their place.
2. Use the record navigation arrows beside the button to move through the sheets. Watch for empty second address lines, doubled spaces, and names in the wrong case.
3. Click Check for Errors in the same group and choose Simulate the merge and report errors in a new document. Word lists any record it cannot resolve.
4. To adjust the look, click Preview Results again to switch back to the field view, select the text in the first label, and change the font or size from the Home tab. Then click Update Labels to push the change across the sheet.
5. If the text sits too close to the label edge, click inside the grid, open the Layout tab, click Cell Margins, and reduce the top and left values by a few points.

6. Run a Test Print on Plain Paper

Label sheets cost real money, and a misaligned first print wastes the whole sheet.

1. Load plain paper in the tray you plan to use for the labels.
2. Press Ctrl + P to open the print pane, confirm the correct printer is selected, set Pages to 1, and click Print.
3. Hold the printed page against a blank label sheet up to a window or a lamp. Each block of text needs to sit inside its label with clear margin on all four sides.
4. If everything drifts consistently in one direction, the label product number does not match your stock. Return to step 2 and reselect it, or create a custom label with New Label.
5. Once the test aligns, load the label sheets. Check the tray diagram for which way up the sheet feeds — most office printers print on the face-up side in the manual feed tray and the face-down side in the main tray.

Note: Feed label sheets through the manual feed or bypass tray where your printer offers one. It gives a straighter paper path, which reduces the chance of a label peeling off inside the printer.

7. Finish and Print the Labels

Send the finished sheet to the printer or save it as a reusable document.

1. On the Mailings tab, click Finish & Merge in the Finish group.
2. Choose one of the following:
   • Edit Individual Documents — creates a new Word document containing every merged sheet. Use this when you want a last visual check or a saved copy of exactly what was printed.
   • Print Documents — sends the labels straight to the printer.
3. In the dialog that follows, select All to print every recipient, or From and To to print a range — useful when you are reprinting a single spoiled sheet.
4. Click OK, confirm the printer in the Print dialog, and click OK again.
5. Save the merge document itself. Next time you open it, Word offers to reconnect to the same Excel file, so an updated address list reprints in under a minute.

Troubleshooting

TIP

Keep the merge document and the Excel list in the same folder and move them together. Word stores the full path to the spreadsheet, so a moved or renamed file breaks the connection and you have to reselect it.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
Only the first label has an address, the rest are blank	Update Labels was never clicked	Click inside the first label, then click Mailings > Update Labels (step 4).
Every label shows the same person	The «Next Record» fields were deleted	Delete all labels, restart from step 2, and let Update Labels insert «Next Record» rather than copying and pasting the first label by hand.
ZIP codes lost a leading zero	Excel stored the column as numbers	Rebuild the column in Excel with the TEXT formula in step 1, or connect the list using the DDE option in step 3.
Blank line in the middle of the address	Empty Address 2 column	In the Insert Address Block dialog, click Match Fields and set Address 2 to (not matched).
Text prints slightly above or below each label	Wrong product number selected	Reselect the number from the label packaging in Label Options, or build a custom size with New Label (step 2).
"Word was unable to open the data source"	Excel file open, moved, or renamed	Close the file in Excel, then reconnect with Select Recipients > Use an Existing List.
Labels jam or peel off inside the printer	Label sheet fed through the wrong tray	Use the manual feed or bypass tray, load one sheet at a time, and check the sheet has no missing labels before feeding it.

Related Articles

• How to Mail Merge from Excel to Word
• How to Manage Default Printers and Print Settings on Windows
• How to Fix Common Printer Issues (No Admin Required)
• How to Fix Print Quality Issues — Streaks, Faded Text, and Lines
• How to Save or Print Any Document as a PDF

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