changing the order in which fields are displayed

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JoeBananas - 01 Mar 2005 22:25 GMT

Can someone tell me how I can change the order that mergefields are
displayed?

I've done a google search to no avail but what I'm trying to do is
something I thought someone else would have already accomplished.

I'm doing a mailmerge on a postcard. On one side I print information
for a contact from the datasource and on the other side I print the
contact's address. The postcards are four up on a page. The problem is
that the contact's address has to be displayed in a different order so
that the contact address matches with his data. For example, if I use
the <<mergefield>> and <<Next Record>> fields together I can get a 8.5
x 11 page that looks like this, (please use a fixed pitch font)

___________________

| | |
| Rec 1 | Rec 2 |
|_________|_________|
| | |
| Rec 3 | Rec 4 |
|_________|_________|

But, what I need is a page that looks like this,
___________________

| | |
| Rec 2 | Rec 1 |
|_________|_________|
| | |
| Rec 4 | Rec 3 |
|_________|_________|

So that when I print on both side of the paper the data for the same
contact matches up. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any way
to sort how the records get displayed. Change the order in which the
fields are inserted certainly doesn't help.

Any suggestions?

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Doug Robbins - 01 Mar 2005 23:53 GMT

Make a duplicate of your datasource in Excel and in an empty column, place 0
in the first row and in the second row of that column (B in my case), insert
the formula = B1 + 1. Copy that formula down for each row in the
datasource. If you got that part right, then you will have a sequence of
numbers corresponding to the record numbers, that is 0,1,2,3,4, etc. with
the 0 being in the header row. Now in Cell C2, insert the following
formula:

=IF(MOD(B2,2)=1,2*B2-B1,B2-1)

and copy it down for each record. This should give you the following
numbering sequence 2,1,4,3,6,5,8,7, etc.

Now, select this column of numbers and do a copy, paste special, selecting
the values item to convert the formulae into numbers. Now sort the data
source on this column and you should get a record set that is ordered the
way in which you need it.

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Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

> Can someone tell me how I can change the order that mergefields are
> displayed?
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
>
> Any suggestions?

Reply to this Message

JoeBananas - 02 Mar 2005 06:45 GMT

Hi Doug,

Thanks for the quick response. That worked magnificently. You're quite
the life saver!

Keep up the good work.

>Make a duplicate of your datasource in Excel and in an empty column, place 0
>in the first row and in the second row of that column (B in my case), insert
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>source on this column and you should get a record set that is ordered the
>way in which you need it.

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