Mail Merge in Word 2010

[RonH]

I am trying to create a Mail Merge address list for envelope Labels using my existing Windows Live Mail Contacts list. It seems that the programme wants to use 'Outlook'' but says that I can associate another programme. Can't seem to find a way to do this ... any help please

Rather than using WLM for this would it be preferable to create a new address listing using eg Excel and then somehow?? open this list in the Mail Merge feature of Office 2020.

[HansV]

Windows Live Mail is not fully MAPI-compliant, and hence it cannot be used for mail merge from Word.

You can export Windows Live Mail contacts to a .csv file:
- Click the Address book icon or click Ctrl+Shift+C.
- Click the Show Menu button, then Export | Comma Separated Values (.CSV)

Word can use the .csv file as data source for the mail merge: in the Mailings tab of the ribbon, click Select Recipients | Use Existing List...

[RonH]

Thanks for tips Hans.
On a slightly different aspect, if I have a .mdb file but do not have 'Access' as part of my Office 2010/Home Student programme, what is the recommended way to open this type of file to permit editing? There are quite a few possibilities mentioned on the web but I respect forum views

[HansV]

If you want to edit/view the data: you can download the runtime version of Access 2010 for free from Microsoft: Microsoft Access 2010 Runtime. It can open databases in Access 2000 or 2002-2003 .mdb format and databases in Access 2007-2010 .accdb format.

Alternatively, there are free database viewers with limited editing capability, such as MDB Viewer Plus (this one is portable, i.e. it does not need to be installed - simply run the .exe).

[RonH]

Again thanks Hans ... .csv is definately the easy way