Create a Form Letter with Apple Pages

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Oftentimes in you’ll need to create a form letter to send to a group of people. If you’d like to personalize these letters, Pages makes it easy to insert data you’ve defined for contacts in Address Book. This can save you time because you can reuse a letter, envelope, or other document for multiple people. This feature is generally called a mail merge.

Several of Pages’ templates contain Address Book fields. Your contact data can be automatically inserted into these fields. Students can also use this Pages feature for letter writing campaigns if they are writing about issues.

  1. Launch Pages. The Template Chooser opens.
  2. Click the Word Processing category and choose Letters or Envelopes, then select a style, and click Choose. A new, untitled document opens. AppendixA_Fig08
  3. Choose File > Save; name the file and store it on your local hard drive. The letter or envelope is ready to be modified to match the and needs for your classroom.
  4. Pages has already inserted your information into the sender fields. Your name and contact information has already been entered. Pages fills sender fields using the Address Book card that’s designated My Card.
  5. Write your letter and fill in all text information as needed. The text you see on-screen is placeholder text, simply click on an area and start to type. When ready, you’ll need to set up an address group for your targeted group.
  6. Launch the Address Book application by clicking its icon in the Dock or your Applications folder.
  7. Enter the contact information for your students’ families. Create one card for each address.
  8. Create a new group for your classroom by choosing File > New Group.
  9. Drag all of your classroom cards into the group.
  10. AppendixA_Fig09
  11. Switch back to Pages. When ready, you can easily personalize your document for multiple recipients.
  12. Choose Edit > Merge Address Book Cards.
  13. Choose an Address Book group to merge from the pop-up menu.
  14. Specify where to Merge Cards to: either a New Document or to Send to Printer. AppendixA_Fig10
  15. Click OK. Pages generates multiple documents, one addressed to each recipient in the Address Book group.
  16. Save your work by choosing File > Save.