Mail merge for bulk sending with DeepSign

Would you like to send the same document, such as a contract, an internal directive or an information notice, to many recipients, personalise it for each recipient and have it signed? Mail merge in Word and batch sending in DeepSign make this process efficient. This guide explains how to proceed.

Use cases

Possible use cases:

• Have all employees sign a document, such as a new set of regulations.
• Personally sign all certificates for all students.

What do you need?

• Microsoft Word and Excel
• Adobe Acrobat Pro or another PDF application with a split function
• A DeepSign account

Step 1: create a mail merge in Word

A mail merge consists of a standard document and a recipient list. Word automatically inserts each recipient’s individual details, such as their name or address.

1. Prepare the recipient list
Create a table in Excel. Each row represents a recipient, and each column contains a piece of information, such as title, first name, last name, address and email address. The table must contain all the details you want to use in the letter. Save the file.

2. Start the mail merge
Open a blank Word document or your document template. Go to the “Mailings” tab and click “Start Mail Merge”. Select “Step-by-Step Mail Merge Wizard”.

3. Choose the document type and starting document
Select “Letters” as the document type and use the current document as the starting document. Alternatively, you can use a Word template or an existing document.

4. Connect the recipient list
Click “Browse…” and select your Excel file. Choose the appropriate worksheet and check which recipients should be included. You can include or exclude individual entries using the checkboxes.

5. Write the letter
Use the menu to insert personalised elements:

• “Address Block” for the recipient’s address.
• “Greeting Line” for the salutation.
• “Insert Merge Field” for other individual details, such as a contract number, an amount or a date.

Tip: use “Preview Results” to check that all fields are populated correctly.

6. Insert placeholders for signatures and email addresses
Placeholders allow you to position signature fields and the recipients’ corresponding email addresses directly in the mail merge document. When sending documents in a batch, DeepSign automatically recognises where signatures are required and which recipient each document should be sent to. There is no need to edit the individual documents manually.

Insert the placeholders where you want the visual signature to appear in the letter. For the email address, you can also use a merge field from your Excel table. You can find information about the available placeholders and their correct syntax here: Placeholder texts for automation.

7. Complete the mail merge

Click “Finish & Merge” and select “Edit Individual Documents”. Word creates a new document containing all personalised letters one after another. Carefully check the contents of this document, including the placeholders.

Step 2: save the mail merge as a PDF and split it into individual documents

DeepSign requires a separate document for each recipient. You therefore need to split the merged document.

1. Print to PDF

Print the merged Word document via “File → Print” using the “Microsoft Print to PDF” printer, or save it via “Save As → PDF”.

2. Split the PDF

Open the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat Pro and proceed as follows:

1. Select “Organize Pages”.
2. Click “Split”.
3. Select “Number of pages” as the criterion and specify how many pages each letter contains: 1 for single-page letters.
4. Use “Output Options” to specify a destination folder, then confirm by clicking “Split”.

You now have a separate PDF file for each recipient.

Important: if each letter contains several pages, the page count used for splitting must be the same for all letters. If the letters have different lengths, automatic splitting by page count is not possible.

Step 3: upload the documents and send them in a batch

1. Log in to DeepSign.
2. Upload all the individual PDF documents together. Make sure you have disabled the envelope function.
3. Start batch sending by opening the “Drafts” tab in the left-hand navigation, selecting all documents and clicking “Send invitation”.

Thanks to the placeholders used in the mail merge, signature fields and recipients are recognised automatically.

Each recipient now receives their personalised document for signing.

Step 4 (optional): sign all documents using batch signing

If you, as the sender, also need to sign all documents, batch signing saves you time: you can sign all documents in a single operation instead of opening each one individually.

You can find detailed instructions here: Batch signing.