Mail Merge w/ Word/Excel 2003

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WTF? - 25 Nov 2003 17:38 GMT

Would someone PLEASE explain to me why those f'ing idiots at MS dicked up
the mail merge system to that it has to be such an extraordinary pain in the
f'in a.s now?

Why does it have to be more difficult to create mailing labels than it was
in previous version of this crappy software?

What an absolute pain in the a$$.

Another pissed off user

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Cindy M -WordMVP- - 26 Nov 2003 17:14 GMT

Hi Wtf?,

> Would someone PLEASE explain to me why those f'ing idiots at MS dicked up
> the mail merge system to that it has to be such an extraordinary pain in the
> f'in a.s now?
>
> Why does it have to be more difficult to create mailing labels than it was
> in previous version of this crappy software?

Actually, creating mailing labels in Word 2002/2003 is a LOT better than it
used to be in earlier versions. There are other things about the new interface
I don't care for, but labels is a GREAT improvement.

Most experienced users of Word stumble at the "propagate labels" point: they
don't find the command. I know that's what happened to me during the beta for
Word 2002. Once I was pointed in the right direction, however, I thought it
was great fun. At what point, more exactly, are you stymied?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

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dfradsham - 27 Nov 2003 15:16 GMT

Cindy - I think what "WTF?" is referring to might be some of the same
issues I have come up with - specifically doing any type of mail merge
using contacts. You can no longer select contacts from a given view,
and the search option is a complete waste of time. We use categories to
sort and filter things, and it doesn't even show up on the friggin list
of fields! Now I have to export to Excel then import to Word, stupid.

IOW it is now a pain in the A$$.

I agree, they screwed this one up, and now I have to work from a
separate box with Office XP to do what was easier before. I will also
now be telling my clients to not bother upgrading to 2003 as other than
some nice stuff in Outlook, it will be a step back for some of their
functions.

DF

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Cindy M -WordMVP- - 28 Nov 2003 16:20 GMT

Hi Dfradsham,

> I think what "WTF?" is referring to might be some of the same
> issues I have come up with - specifically doing any type of mail merge
> using contacts. You can no longer select contacts from a given view,
> and the search option is a complete waste of time. We use categories to
> sort and filter things, and it doesn't even show up on the friggin list
> of fields! Now I have to export to Excel then import to Word, stupid.

I didn't get the impressionthat WTF? is fighting with Contacts, but
perhaps that's because I read questions very literally :-) OTOH, EXCEL is
mentioned in the subject line, so...

As to your problem: you can do exactly what you describe IF you start in
Outlook, and use Tools/Mail merge in Outlook (starting with version 2000,
not in 97). At least, it does work here just fine. What are you seeing?
How is it not working? (And are you using a mixture of software
versions?)

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

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