Mail merge DIRECTORY issue with Excel as data source repeats doc p

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bjm - 11 May 2007 23:09 GMT

Hi, I'm using XP Pro sp2, Word 2003 & Excel 2003. Mail merge fields on
single page with in large word doc. All looks good in preview merge, but
when I complete merge, only one record from excel populates the page in Word
with the merge fields, then the whole document repeats, adding the next
single record from excel on the merge field page, again and again, repeating
the whole document for each record merged. I used to be able to merge
multiple excel records onto the same word page. I feel like I've tried every
thing.When I delete everything butthe merge field page and complete the
merge, everything works fine. Please, can somebody explain how to get around
this?
Thanks, Brian

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Thanks!

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Peter Jamieson - 12 May 2007 07:38 GMT

Do you still have any of the Mail Merge Main Documents that you used to use?

The normal behaviour in Word merge is that if you have

Text before
Fields
Text after

then you would expect to get

Text before
Fields from record 1
Text after
Text before
Fields from record 2
Text after
Text before
Fields from record 3
Text after

and so on

If you used to get

Text before
Fields from record 1
Fields from record 2
Fields from record 3
Text after

then the chances are that your Mail Merge Main Document was a "Catalog"
merge with something like the following in it:

{ IF { MERGESEQ } = 1 "Text before" "" }
Fields

(and you would probably have to have dealt with "Text after" in some special
way).

Does that ring any bells?

Peter Jamieson

> Hi, I'm using XP Pro sp2, Word 2003 & Excel 2003. Mail merge fields on
> single page with in large word doc. All looks good in preview merge, but
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> this?
> Thanks, Brian

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bjm - 12 May 2007 14:28 GMT

Thanks Peter,
Yes, it was a catalog/directory type document. It still is a directory type
document. I tried creating the directory again, several times, but still get
Text before

> Fields from record 1
> Text after
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> and so on

How can I get:

> Text before
> Fields from record 1
> Fields from record 2
> Fields from record 3
> Text after

I'm not familiar with { IF { MERGESEQ } = 1 "Text before" "" } Fields"
Thanks for your reply!
-Brian

> Do you still have any of the Mail Merge Main Documents that you used to use?
>
[quoted text clipped - 54 lines]
> > this?
> > Thanks, Brian

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Peter Jamieson - 12 May 2007 17:36 GMT

Which version of Word were you using before? And do you still have the
original - if so, use Alt-F9 to see what fields were in there.

> { IF { MERGESEQ } = 1 "Text before" "" } Fields

In essence you nest a MERGESEQ field inside an IF field to do special
processing for the first record in the merge. a. Use Ctrl-F9 to insert
both pairs of special field braces {}
b. type MERGESEQ inside the inner pair
c. type =1 "" "" before the 2nd closing brace
d. Where I have put "Text before", type/enter all the text and fields this
can include multiple paragraphs and so on) you want before your list of
records.
e. Where I have put Fields, type the fields you want to repeat in each
record.

However, this can't also do the final text after the records, which is why I
am curious as to exactly how this was achieved before. I wonder if you
actually did a merge before - perhaps you actually had a DATABASE field in
the middle of your document and inserted a table of data from your dtaa
source that way. (To insert a DATABASE field, enable the database toolbar
e.g. using View|Toolbars, and take it from there.

Peter Jamieson

> Thanks Peter,
> Yes, it was a catalog/directory type document. It still is a directory
[quoted text clipped - 86 lines]
>> > this?
>> > Thanks, Brian

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Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 12 May 2007 08:21 GMT

That is the way a catalog or directory type mailmerge has always worked. If
you want other content, you will need to add it after executing the merge.

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Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

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