Mail merge dates back to early word processors on personal computers, circa 1980.
[4] WordStar[4][5] was perhaps[6] the earliest to provide this,[7] originally via an ancillary program called Mail merge.
[15] Going beyond words, in 2018 The New York Times detailed a further instance of "mass customization" - personalized videos.[16][relevant?]
The data source is typically a table in a document, or a spreadsheet or database which has a field or column for each variable in the template.
It can also be used to create address labels from a customer relationship management database, or for mass emails with pertinent information in them, perhaps a username and password.