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MS Office Forum / Word / Mailmerge and Fax / August 2006Dept with > 50 mail merges look for a way to streamline process
Hello. I work at a University that is changing student software package and therefore changing how we do business. Our Recruiting and Admissions department sends out more than 50 different letters to various populations continuously throughout the year. The data is extracted, one file per letter, from the student Oracle database into a doc files and is they are ftp'd to the departments pc. I have tested by setting up 2 macros each containing one letter's mail merge. Each macro begins by opening the word doc and ends with printing the letters and closing without saving. I then set up a 3rd (Master) macro which runs the 2 letter macros. This works but was difficult to set up (the macro recorder is picky). All of the original letter docs will be changed periodicly. Could someone tell me a better way to do this? Thanks Some considerations: a. who will be producing any code that you might need b. who will be maintaining the templates (i.e. will it be a technically-oriented person or someone who does not know how the package as a whole fits together) c. how do you decide what to produce and when? d. what needs to happen to the output after it is distributed? Do the departments just print the results, or what? e. did your previous system use Word for this, or are you only considering Word because of the change of package? (And which version of Word?) I don't think you will get very far using recorded macros and you will probably need to understand and edit them substantially to get what you need, but they can take you quite a long way. [Personally, I would at least consider having a look at something like the Reporting Services features in SQL Server 2005 (I believe that there is a version even with the free SQL Server Express 2005, but I do not know whether it is severely limited compared to the real thing). I can't say I know much about it, and e.g. whether it would be easy to work with Oracle data, but it's the kind of thing that is geared to this sort of applciation.] Peter Jamieson > Hello. I work at a University that is changing student software package > and [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Thanks Peter, Thanks so much. The answers to your questions are embedded below. I don't know how far I would get with SQL Server, but will ask around the office. Unfortunately, as a State university we are not allowed to have software on our machines that isn't licensed. So I don't know how far I'll get with freeware. Thanks again. Holly > Some considerations: > a. who will be producing any code that you might need The Admissions office maintains the letter doc and will be receiving the data file. The plan is to have them print the letters in their offices for distribution. > b. who will be maintaining the templates (i.e. will it be a > technically-oriented person or someone who does not know how the package as > a whole fits together) Technical people will be figuring out how to do set-up and maintenance, documenting the procedure, and then turning it over the the non-technical Admissions office. Unfortunately we do not have anyone who is a Word guru. > c. how do you decide what to produce and when? The 50 letters are produced on different schedules. Some are daily, some are once a year, etc. > d. what needs to happen to the output after it is distributed? Do the > departments just print the results, or what? Admissions will print, stuff, and take to post office. > e. did your previous system use Word for this, or are you only considering > Word because of the change of package? Our previous system created letters, but not pretty ones. We are considering Word because everyone has it on their machine. > (And which version of Word?) I'm on Word 2002, not everyone will be, but we can force an upgrade if necessary > I don't think you will get very far using recorded macros and you will > probably need to understand and edit them substantially to get what you [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > > > > Thanks > Thanks so much. The answers to your questions are embedded below. I > don't [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > our machines that isn't licensed. So I don't know how far I'll get with > freeware. It sounds like a relatively non-technical dept. will need to maintain the letters and that suggests that an everyday package such as Word is likely to be the only game in town. The main argument against that is that it's easier to screw it up, but that's an option available in most software packages. > I'm on Word 2002, not everyone will be, but we can force an > upgrade if necessary Word 2002 should be OK, since you're just distributing the results of the application. [What you do /not/ want to be doing with Word Mailmerge applications is having to distribute the mailmerge application itself]. > The 50 letters are produced on different schedules. Some are daily, some > are once a > year, etc. I would probably aim to produce one VBA macro to process each schedule (though it does depend on how easy it is to start the macro from whatever you are using for scheduling). Each macro would probably process a simple list (probably held in a Word document or perhaps a .txt file) of the merge templates to process in that schedule. If it is possible to define all the necessary selection/filter/sort criteria for a template within the template, I would probably do that. Otherwise, you can do the same thing in an OpenDataSource call. I would certainly check that I could open whatever Oracle tables/views I needed (assuming you are getting your data directly from the database - maybe it is being exported first?) early in my feasibility testing. If all the merges aim to produce separate letters for each record in the data source, you should be able to use the same code "pattern" to process all of the data. There are a few examples of how to do this - e.g. search this group using Google groups for messages containing "Jamieson activerecord" or have a look at Graham Mayor's site at http://www.gmayor.com for some other approaches. You will also need to apply the registry patch described in the following article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825765/en-us Peter Jamieson > Peter, > [quoted text clipped - 93 lines] >> > >> > Thanks Peter, Thanks for your help. Here are the answers to your questions. I'm on Word 2002, not everyone will be, but I think we can force an upgrade if necessary. a. The Admissions office maintains the letter doc and will be receiving the data file. The plan is to have them print the letters in their offices for distribution. b. Technical people will be figuring out how to do set-up and maintenance, documenting the procedure, and then turning it over the the non-technical Admissions office. Unfortunately we do not have anyone who is a Word guru. c. The 50 letters are produced on different schedules. Some are daily, some are once a year, etc. d. Admissions will print, stuff, and take to post office. e. Our previous system created letters, but not pretty ones. We are considering Word because everyone has it on their machine. Holly > Some considerations: > a. who will be producing any code that you might need [quoted text clipped - 43 lines] > > > > Thanks |
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