---
title: "How to create personalised gift card messages"
description: "This guide explains how you could use Microsoft Excel to prepare custom messages for each gift recipient, ready to upload to GiftPay. For help on how to upload this file and send customised gifts, see Sending a large batch of eGifts with the same value and message."
canonical_url: "https://help.giftpay.com/articles/how-to-create-personalised-gift-card-messages-7L48lHyjyz"
md_url: "https://help.giftpay.com/articles/how-to-create-personalised-gift-card-messages-7L48lHyjyz.md"
---
# How to create personalised gift card messages

:::tip
This guide explains how you could use Microsoft Excel to prepare custom messages for each gift recipient, ready to upload to GiftPay. For help on how to upload this file and send customised gifts, see **[Sending a large batch of eGifts with the same value and message](/articles/sending-a-large-batch-of-egifts-with-custom-values-and-messages-XhNPy7RDoM).**

:::

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If you have an excel file with gift recipient first names and email addresses, you can use the excel concatenate functions to create a column with personalised gift card messages. This column is used as the Message column when uploaded to GiftPay. This means each gift recipient can receive a gift message personalised with their own name, making the gift a little more personal.

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In this example, we'll add a recipient's name to a personal gift message. This assumes you have an excel file with each recipient's first name and email address.

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1. If your excel file doesn't have a header row yet, add a new above row 1, and use a header of "Name" above the first names. Also add a second column next to it with a header of "Gift Message". Next to the first recipient's name in the Gift Message column, type in the rest of the text that should be joined with their name to form the full personal message: \n  ![](https://express.giftpay.com/images/help-excel-concat-01.png)

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2. Add another new column with header name of "Message". This **column** must have "Message" in the header, since the GiftPay system looks for that header to find the message data to use. \n  ![](https://express.giftpay.com/images/help-excel-concat-02.png)

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3. In the first record for the "Message" column, you're going to type the **=** sign; \n  ![](https://express.giftpay.com/images/help-excel-concat-03.png)

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4. Then click the first cell under the "Name" header. (In our example below, Cell A2); \n  ![](https://express.giftpay.com/images/help-excel-concat-04.png)

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5. Type the **&** sign. The & character is a shortcut for the concatenate function; \n  ![](https://express.giftpay.com/images/help-excel-concat-05.png)

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6. Then click the first cell under the "Gift Message" header. (In our example below, Cell B2); \n  ![](https://express.giftpay.com/images/help-excel-concat-06.png)

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7. Then press ENTER to save that cell. Excel should now join the first name to the gift message and show the full personalised message for the first recipient. \n  ![](https://express.giftpay.com/images/help-excel-concat-07.png)

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8. Now select that same cell again (Cell C2), then click and drag down from bottom right corner of the box to fill the remaining cells in the column. \n  ![](https://express.giftpay.com/images/help-excel-concat-08.png)

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Here's what the result should look like. Ensure that the personalised message still matches up with the correct email address on each row.

 ![](https://express.giftpay.com/images/help-excel-concat-filled.png)