Mail merge with JTL-Wawi and LibreOffice 4.0

Not everyone has Microsoft Office and so it is obvious to show the whole thing with LibreOffice to you. Since Christmas is just around the corner and many start promotions at Christmas, I show this here with the example of the company Contoso GbR, which exports your address data from the enterprise resource planning into a csv file and then creates a form letter to all customers with these exported customer addresses. Of course, I use JTL-Wawi as the merchandise management system in this example. But it works just as well with any other export file.

 Step 1: Create the csv file

In Start JTL-Wawi via the menu item JTL-Wawi the JTL Ant (Import/Export)

Then click on Export and expand under“Export from”. Customers. Then click on Customer data.

Leave the default values at Export file format

Double-click the fields you want to export under Data Fields. For the serial letter Salutation, title, first name, last name, company, company suffix, street, address suffix, To the attention of, postal code, city and country required.

Then click on Save template. In the Save export template window assign a Template nameand clickSave New Template. Confirm the message window with OK.

Click now Start export….

In the Export operation window click again on Start export. Select a location for the export file and then click save. Once the export is successfully completed, close the JTL ant.

Step 2: Create the form letter

I have already prepared the letter template here with LibreOffice Writer. You can download the file here:

Save the file and open it with a double click. Of course, you can also use your own letter template.

In the menu under Tools you will find the Mail Merge Wizard in LibreOffice.

In the mail merge wizard step 1 Select source document leave the default setting“Use current document” and click Next.

In step 2 Select document type also click on Continue to apply the default setting Letter.

In step 3 Insert address block click under Insert address block on Select address list…

In the dialog box Select the list of recipients click the button Add and navigate to the JTL-Wawi customer export file. Highlight them with the mouse and then click on Open.

In the dialog box Connection details you set as Field separator set the semicolon (;) character and confirm the entry by clicking on OK. Close the dialog box Recipient list select with a click on OK.

In step 2 of Insert Address Block, you specify the layout for the address block. You can change the layout by clicking the More… button. button.

In the dialog box Address block select you can now select the appropriate address block for your mail merge. You can still change this with a click on the button Edit change according to your personal needs. Close your entries each time with OK off.

In step 3 of the Insert Address Block dialog box, you map the fields of your export file to the mail merge fields. In this example, I have made the following assignments:

Close the dialog box Assign fields with a click on OK and then check the result. With one click on Further you can continue.

In step 4 of the mail merge wizard you can customize the letter salutation. Select here as Address list value for a female recipient the Column title Salutation and enter as Field content Ms. . Then click on Next.

In step 5 Customize layout we give as Distance from top 3,20cm and click on Next.

Click in Step 6 Prepare document on the button Edit Document to enter your text for the customer cover letter.

When you have added a text click the button back to the mail merge wizard.

Now click on the button Next.

In step 7 you have the possibility to edit the individual documents again. Click Continue to save and print the form letters.

In step 8 save, print, mark

• Save source document to save the mail merge template,
• Save mail merge document to save the mail merge letters individually or in a file,
• Print form letter document to output the form letters to a printer,
• or mail merge document as an e-mail.

After that you can exit the wizard by clicking Finish. I hope I could help you,

Your Michael Schäfer

Ali Oukassi

Mohamed Ali Oukassi ist Gründer und Inhaber von eBakery. Er hat mehr als zwölf Jahre Erfahrung in der E-Commerce Welt. Mit seinem Team aus Experten kann er jeden Bereich abdecken und lebt den Full-Service-Gedanken, egal ob es um die Erstellung / Umstellung eines Shops, die Berartung hinsichtlich des richtigen Shopsystems, Marketingfragen, SEO oder auch das Thema Social Media Integration geht. Gut vernetzt und mit einem leistungsstarken Personal im Rücken, nimmt er sich jeder Herausforderung im E-Commerce an.