Address List Templates

Eighteen free address list templates for Microsoft Word and Excel. Use them as a printed contact sheet for a team, class or club, or keep the list in Excel and merge it straight into printed labels and envelopes.

Address list or address book?

Worth thirty seconds before you download, because the two are shaped differently and one of them is probably not what you want.

• An address list is a table. One row per person, columns for name, address, phone and email. It sorts, it filters, it prints as a sheet, and it feeds a mail merge. That is what is on this page, and it is what you want for a team, a class, a club, a wedding guest list or a customer mailing.
• An address book is alphabetised, A to Z. A few contacts per page, designed to be printed and kept as a small book you write in by hand. Our address book templates cover that format.

If you intend to print labels or envelopes at any point, you want the list. A book cannot be merged.

Word or Excel?

For anything you will update more than once, use Excel. You can always print a spreadsheet; you cannot easily sort a Word table by postcode.

The templates

Eighteen layouts, differing in which columns they include and how many entries fit per page. The file sizes give you a rough idea of complexity — the smallest are plain grids, the larger ones carry more formatting.

List 1 11 KBDownload

List 2 6 KBDownload

List 3 8 KBDownload

List 4 52 KBDownload

List 5 3 KBDownload

List 6 11 KBDownload

List 7 22 KBDownload

List 8 12 KBDownload

List 9 24 KBDownload

List 10 21 KBDownload

List 11 7 KBDownload

List 12 231 KBDownload

List 13 16 KBDownload

List 14 9 KBDownload

List 15 15 KBDownload

List 16 8 KBDownload

List 17 7 KBDownload

List 18 10 KBDownload

Which columns to include

Set the columns up properly at the start. Restructuring a list of 200 contacts later is an afternoon you will not enjoy.

• Split the name into two columns. First name and surname separately, always. One combined “Name” column cannot be sorted alphabetically by surname, and cannot produce a letter that opens “Dear Sarah”.
• Split the address too. Street, city, state or county, postcode or ZIP, country as separate columns. Mail merge needs them separate, and you cannot reliably split them apart afterwards.
• Keep the postcode as text, not a number. This is the single most common Excel mistake with address lists. Formatted as a number, Excel strips the leading zero and 01234 becomes 1234. Select the column, then Home, Number Format, Text before you type anything into it.
• One column per phone type. Mobile and landline separately rather than two numbers crammed in one cell.
• Add a group or category column. Family, work, club, customer. It costs nothing now and lets you filter the list later instead of keeping four separate files.
• Add a “last updated” column. Addresses go stale. Knowing an entry was last confirmed four years ago is useful information before you post something to it.

Turning the list into labels or envelopes

This is the reason to keep addresses in a spreadsheet, and it is much easier than most people expect. Word does the work; your list is just the data source.

1. Get the spreadsheet clean first

   One header row at the very top, one row per person, no blank rows in the middle, no merged cells. Merged cells are what break most merges. Headers should be plain words like FirstName and Postcode.

2. Start the merge in Word

   Open a blank Word document and go to Mailings, Start Mail Merge, then choose Labels or Envelopes. Pick your label brand and product number from the list — it is printed on the label packet.

3. Connect it to your list

   Mailings, Select Recipients, Use an Existing List, then choose your Excel file and the sheet it is on. Use Edit Recipient List to untick anyone you do not want to post to this time.

4. Lay out one label, then finish

   Insert the fields into the first label in the order you want them, then click Update Labels to copy that layout to every label on the sheet. Preview Results shows real names. Finally, Finish & Merge to print.

Print one sheet on plain paper first and hold it against the label sheet to check alignment before using the real labels. Our mailing label templates and shipping label templates cover the label side in more detail.

Printing a list that runs over several pages

A long address list prints across several sheets, and by page three nobody can remember which column is which. Excel can repeat the header row on every page, which almost nobody knows about.

Go to Page Layout, Print Titles, and in “Rows to repeat at top” select your header row. Every printed page now carries the column headings. While you are there, set the orientation to landscape and use Scale to Fit, Width: 1 page so the columns do not spill sideways onto extra sheets.

Keeping the list accurate

An address list decays at roughly ten to twenty per cent a year as people move, change jobs and switch numbers. Two habits keep it usable.

• Update the entry when post comes back. A returned envelope is information. Mark the row rather than putting it back in the pile.
• Confirm the list once a year. Before an annual mailing is the natural moment. The “last updated” column makes it obvious which entries need checking.

Common questions