How to mail merge a contract, then get every copy signed
Mail merge takes one document and a list, and produces a personal copy for every row: "Dear Maria" instead of "Dear customer", the right address, the right fee. Word has done it for decades. For letters, that's the whole job. For contracts it's only half, because each copy still has to reach the right person and come back signed. Here's the Word way, and a way that merges and collects signatures together.
Updated November 5, 2026 · 3 min read
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Mail merge in Word
- 1
Start the merge
Open the contract in Word, go to the Mailings tab and choose Start Mail Merge, then Letters.
- 2
Connect your list
Choose Select Recipients, then Use an Existing List, and pick your Excel file and the sheet that holds the data. The first row must be the column headings.
- 3
Insert merge fields
Click where the customer's name belongs and use Insert Merge Field to choose the matching column. Repeat for the address, the fee, the start date and anything else that changes.
- 4
Preview a few copies
Click Preview Results and step through several records. Look for fields that run into the text and dates or prices in the wrong format.
- 5
Finish the merge
Choose Finish & Merge, then Edit Individual Documents to get one long document with a copy per row, or send each copy as an email message.
Where Word's merge stops
For a contract, the merged result isn't the finish line. Edit Individual Documents gives you every copy in one file, which you would have to split, save as separate PDFs and send one by one. Merging to email puts the contract in the body of the message, with nowhere to sign and no record of who agreed. Either way, you're back to tracking two hundred replies in an inbox.
Merge and sign in one step
Bulk send in SignMaster is a mail merge that ends in a signature. The concepts map almost one to one:
| In Word | In SignMaster |
|---|---|
| The main document | A template made from your contract PDF |
| A merge field such as «Fee» | A text box drawn with the Markup Text tool and labeled Fee |
| The recipient list | A CSV, or rows pasted from your spreadsheet |
| Preview Results | Check rows, which flags rows with missing or invalid values |
| Finish & Merge | Send: one envelope per row, each with its own signing link |
The merged values print on the contract itself and the signer can't edit them, so the fee in the body is the fee they agree to. Each copy then goes to its own signer, reminders follow up, and every signed copy comes back with its certificate of completion. The steps are Add people, Match columns, Check rows and Send, starting from the template's Bulk send button.
Reuse your Word headings
Label each text box exactly like the column it should take, such as Fee or Start date. Bulk send matches columns to boxes by name, so a sheet you already built for a Word merge often lines up with no renaming.
Which one to use
Use Word's mail merge for letters, notices and anything nobody signs. Use bulk send when every copy needs a signature, when you need to know who has signed, or when the list is long enough that chasing replies by hand would take days. Bulk send is on Solo, Crew and Company. On Free, you can still send a template one envelope at a time.
Questions? Answers.
Can I mail merge a PDF?
Not in Word, which merges its own documents. To fill a PDF from a spreadsheet, make it a SignMaster template with labeled text boxes, then bulk send it with your list.
Can I mail merge into an e-signature request?
Yes. That's what bulk send does: each row of your spreadsheet becomes its own envelope with that row's values printed in the contract and its own signing link.
Do merged values stay editable by the signer?
Not in SignMaster. Values filled into the template's text boxes print on the page as read-only text, so the signer agrees to exactly what you sent.
How do I mail merge from Google Sheets?
Download the sheet with File › Download › Comma Separated Values, or copy the rows with their header and paste them into the bulk send screen.
Sources
- Microsoft, Use mail merge for bulk email, letters, labels, and envelopes · support.microsoft.com