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Office & paperwork

Mail Merge to Separate PDFs

Save the finished merge from Word as one PDF, then give this page that PDF and your list of names. It cuts the PDF into one file per person, names each file from your list, and checks the first page of every file for the name it was given.

1. Your merged PDF
Or drop the PDF anywhere on this page.
The file is opened by this tool on your own device. It is not uploaded, and nothing in it is sent anywhere. Nothing is kept either: reloading the page clears the job. Up to 2,000 pages and 50 MB.

Save the finished merge from Word as one PDF first. Microsoft's help lists Mailings → Finish & Merge → Edit Individual Documents as a way to finish a letter merge; of a directory merge it says that this gives a new document, which is saved like any other; and it gives File → Save As (or Save a Copy), with PDF as the format, for saving a document as a PDF. Those steps come from three separate help pages and we have not run them in Word, so check that your PDF holds every letter, one after another (more on How it works). This tool does not run the merge and cannot read a Word file.

2. Your list of names
A spreadsheet is read on your own device, first sheet only, up to 5,000 rows. If you filtered or sorted the recipients in Word, the list here has to hold the same people in the same order as the PDF.
Is the first row a heading?

3. Where to cut
How do the letters divide?

Cutting where each name appears needs every name to be printed on the first page of its own letter, and not on the page before it.

4. File names
Typed exactly as it will appear, so include the space or dash: “Payslip ” before and “ 2026-10” after gives “Payslip Ann Lee 2026-10.pdf”. Characters a computer refuses in a file name are replaced with a hyphen, and repeated names are numbered.
Plan and check

Files
—
Pages in the PDF
—
Names in the list
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Names found on the first page of their file
—
The merged PDF across the top, cut into the files below it. The first files and the last are drawn.

Each file holds its own pages and everything those pages list or point to: fonts, pictures, and whatever those bring with them. If your letters carry a different picture for each person (a signature, a photo, a code), read What a file can carry on How it works first.

This free page downloads jobs of up to 10 letters. The plan and the check are shown for a job of any size up to the limits above.

Based on: Microsoft Support: Use mail merge to personalize letters · Tested against 43 worked examples, all worked by hand · How this is worked out →

Questions people ask

Does this run the mail merge, or turn my Word document into PDFs?
No. You do the merge in Word and save the result as one PDF. This tool starts from that PDF: it cuts it into one file per person and names the files from your list. It cannot read a Word document, it does not make a PDF from one, and it does not email anything.
Is my PDF or my list uploaded?
No. Both are opened by the tool inside your browser, the files are made there, and the zip is saved from there. Nothing from your files is sent anywhere, and after the files are chosen the tool makes no request at all.
My letters are not all the same length. Can it still split them?
Yes, if each person’s name is printed on the first page of their letter and not on the page before it. Choose the option to cut where each name appears: going down your list, a new file starts at the first page that holds the next name. When the files then differ in length the result is amber, and the tool lists the files that are longer or shorter than most, so you can open them and see that each holds one whole letter.
What does “not found” mean next to a file?
The name you gave the file is not in the text of that file’s first page. The cut may be out of step, you may be naming the files by something that is not printed in the letter, such as a reference number, or the name may be printed in a way this tool cannot read: spaced out letter by letter, split by a hyphen at the end of a line, surname first, or in a font it cannot read. The list may also be in a different order from the PDF: when a missing name is printed in a different file, the tool says which. The tool shows amber and asks you to check before it lets you download.
How many letters can it do?
This free page downloads jobs of up to 10 letters. For a longer PDF it still shows the plan and the check for every letter. The paid version for larger jobs is not on sale yet.