Using Word Mail Merge feature for custom templates

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S.Sanghani - 10 Jan 2006 00:02 GMT

Hi,

First, I will apologize in case I am posting this in wrong group/section.
The question is related to Ms-Word and Mail Merge functionality but is also
to do with using these features in a web environment.

Here is what I am trying to achieve:

In a web application (.NET platform), I need to provide users with an option
to create template for a letter using their own content/formatting/images and
also use few mail merge fields to include information from a backend DB.

Finally this letter needs to be saved on server and used for generating
letters, using mail merge functionality, as and when requested by user.

After some research and going through some MS-KB articles, I found mechanism
of specifying custom fields for mail merge in a document and also using data
source from remote server to specify the data for mail merge. The articles
also mentions that Word cannot be hosted on a web-page as a control.

I would like suggestion as to what options does .NET and MS-word provides to
achieve the desired functionaltiy? All ideas and suggestions are very much
welcome. I have been trying to find similar posts or anyone who has done
similar thing (I had thought there will be quite a few people who would have
already done this, when I proposed this functionality) without any result so
far.

Thanks in advance
Samir

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Cindy M -WordMVP- - 10 Jan 2006 09:56 GMT

Hi =?Utf-8?B?Uy5TYW5naGFuaQ==?=,

What you can do depends on the version of Word available to you. If it's Word
2003, you can save and modify the file as WordProcessingML, Word's XML
vocabulary. The user can open and work with the file as a Word document.

> First, I will apologize in case I am posting this in wrong group/section.
> The question is related to Ms-Word and Mail Merge functionality but is also
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> already done this, when I proposed this functionality) without any result so
> far.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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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S.Sanghani - 10 Jan 2006 22:07 GMT

Thanks for the response Cindy.

As this is going to be a controlled application, I can recommed the version
of Word required in order to use this solution.

You are suggesting that I store the content in XML at server end and when I
transfer this XML Internet Explorer will invoke MS-Word to handle the
content? But how can I instruct Word about the mail merge fields? And how do
I get the data back when user finishes editing and Saves it? One of the
requirement is that the editing feature should be available from browser and
user should have a button to save document at server side.

Also, can I use the WordProcessingML for generating mail merged output? Any
link/pointer to help related to this language?

Thanks a lot.
Samir

> Hi =?Utf-8?B?Uy5TYW5naGFuaQ==?=,
>
[quoted text clipped - 34 lines]
> 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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Cindy M -WordMVP- - 11 Jan 2006 10:22 GMT

Hi =?Utf-8?B?Uy5TYW5naGFuaQ==?=,

> As this is going to be a controlled application, I can recommed the version
> of Word required in order to use this solution.
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> link/pointer to help related to this language?
>

I think the first question that needs to be answered is whether the user is going
to be able to use the Word interface at all? A browser knows to open a
WordProcessingML file in Word due to the PI Word writes into it. But if you're
expecting everything to happen in a browser environment, I'm not really sure
what's going to happen. You'll need to do some testing.

You also need to see if mail merge will even work in the scenario you're
postulating. Mail merge won't link to a HTTP-URL, it requires a traditional file
path, either to a local drive or a LAN location. You mention you found an article
that will allow mail merge to work with a data source in a remote location. Do
you have a link to that article?

If you mean the user is to create his template in the browser, but afterwards
will use it in Word outside the browser, things should work. You can extract the
content of the document as WordProcessingML, which will include the merge fields.
The only thing that will be lacking is the Page Setup information. automation
should be able to pick that up and write the missing information into the XML.

I think you need to do two things

1. Determine whether the functionality you need is available when a word document
is opened in the browser environment

2. Save a Word 2003 document as XML then open it in something like Notepad or an
XML editor and get a feel for the WordProcessingML file format. There's a Word
2003 SDK on msdn that goes into this in some detail. You'll also find the schemas
up there with documentation. Basically, you can create a Word document on the
server without Word being present. A user can open it in Word and use it, just as
with any Word document.

> > What you can do depends on the version of Word available to you. If it's Word
> > 2003, you can save and modify the file as WordProcessingML, Word's XML
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
> > > already done this, when I proposed this functionality) without any result so
> > > far.

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