Word's mail merge works, but almost nobody enjoys using it. You open the Mailings tab, start the wizard, link a "data source" (which usually means Outlook contacts or an Excel sheet Word insists on seeing a particular way), insert field codes one at a time, and then find out a number formatted wrong somewhere in step three. Most people who search for "mail merge" aren't looking for that. They just want: here's a template, here's a list, give me one document per person.
What you actually need for a mail merge
Strip away Word's wizard and a mail merge is two things: a template with blanks in it, and rows of data to fill them. That's it. Docexp's mail merge tool works from exactly those two inputs and skips everything else:
- A plain-text template with
{{field}}placeholders,Dear {{name}}, your balance is {{amount}}. - A CSV where the first row is column headers matching those field names, and every row after it is one document.
Click generate, and it produces one .docx per data row, a single file downloads directly, and anything more than one comes back as a zip.
Step by step
- Open the mail merge tool.
- Write your template in the first box, with
{{columnName}}wherever a value should be substituted, the names just need to match your CSV headers exactly. - Paste your CSV into the second box: header row first, one data row per document after that.
- Click Generate & download.
There's no account, no row cap tied to a free tier, and nothing is uploaded anywhere to generate it, the .docx files are built in your browser tab and never touch a server, which is worth knowing if what you're merging is salary letters, invoices, or anything else with other people's names and numbers in it.
If your list lives in Excel
The tool reads CSV, not .xlsx. If your data is in Excel, save it as CSV first, Excel's own "Save As → CSV" does it, or if you'd rather not open Excel, Docexp's Excel-to-CSV converter does the same conversion in the browser. Either way, keep the header row: it's what the {{field}} names in your template are matched against.
The one real limitation
The output is plain text. Each line of your template becomes its own paragraph in the generated document, there's no bold, no letterhead, no inserted logo. That's a fine trade for a quick batch of letters, reminders, or certificates where the words are what matter, and the wrong tool if you need the result to look like a designed document.
Frequently asked questions
What is mail merge?
Combining one template with a list of data to produce many personalized documents, one letter addressed to each person on a list, for example, instead of editing the same document by hand for every name.
Can I do a mail merge without Microsoft Word?
Yes. You need a template with placeholders and a CSV of data; Word's own mail merge wizard is one way to combine them, but it's not the only way. Docexp's mail merge tool does it from a browser tab with no Word installation and no linked data source to configure.
Does this work with data from Excel?
Yes, once it's saved as CSV. Export your Excel sheet with "Save As → CSV" or convert it in the browser with the Excel-to-CSV tool, then paste the result in.
Is there a limit on how many documents I can generate?
No account-tier limit, because there's no account. The practical ceiling is however much your browser's memory can hold, which comfortably covers anything from a handful of letters to a few hundred rows.