Table of contents not functioning in a mailmerge file

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allened - 01 Aug 2007 19:36 GMT

I created a Word merge template in report format that includes a Table of
Contents (TOC). The data elements are all in Excel. The merge works
perfectly, with one exception. Once I perform the merge to "a new document",
my TOC won't function in the merged file. The initial merge will show the
page numbers, but when I print or save, they all revert to "Error! Bookmark
not defined" and F9 won't work either in the merged file In the newly
merged document, the page numbers' hyperlink in the TOC (that can't be
updated) only moves the cursor to the beginning of the first document and
not to the corresponding page in the document. I have tried Ctrl+Shft+F9,
but all that does is convert my TOC to text and not to a TOC that functions
properly.

Any ideas for making the TOC work in a Merged file? Thanks.

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Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 02 Aug 2007 11:02 GMT

The issue here is that each bookmark in a document must be unique and when
you execute a mail merge to a new document, that document would have
multiple instances of what would be the same bookmarks, which is contrary to
the above rule.

I must say that I have not tried this, but you might try the using the addin
that you can download from fellow MVP Graham Mayor's website at:

http://www.gmayor.com/individual_merge_letters.htm

to create a separate document for each record in the data source and see if
the the functionality is retained in each of those documents. Failing that,
you are going to have to create the table of contents in each individual
document.

Signature

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

>I created a Word merge template in report format that includes a Table of
> Contents (TOC). The data elements are all in Excel. The merge works
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> Any ideas for making the TOC work in a Merged file? Thanks.

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allened - 02 Aug 2007 20:32 GMT

I tried doing a merge for a single record and the TOC does not function even
by doing this single record merge. Thanks though. I'll take a look at the
add-in and see if that might help.

> The issue here is that each bookmark in a document must be unique and when
> you execute a mail merge to a new document, that document would have
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> >
> > Any ideas for making the TOC work in a Merged file? Thanks.

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