But then how do you ever set up the label merge? It seems to me that "dismiss the dialogue box" = "exit out of the mail merge process before you've even started."

"You can design your layout before..." OK, so I've created a single page A4 landscape oriented document. I've inserted a single row, 2 cell table and resized the cells to approx. A5 size. I've linked the document to my data source. I've inserted the <<Name>> field into each cell to test if I've got it correct. I click on the Mailings tab. What now? I can see the 'Upgrade Labels' button, but it's grayed out, so I don't have a label merge yet. And when I try as before I get the same barrier dialog.

Sorry, I feel I am missing something pretty basic but have no idea what it is...