Thanks Doug. And actually - as much as I wanted to complete this
project myself - it may be more than I can handle with my basic Macro
knowledge. To give a little overview, here is what I'm trying to
accomplish:
1) Create an ODBC connection to a specific table on an AS400 system.
2) Based upon a specified value per record within the table, choose
from one of 10 Word templates to merge to.
3) Split the merged document into individual documents per record.
4) Save the newly created documents with an automated name based on
another value within the record.
So far, I have parts 1 and 4 completed. I'm also able to select the
appropriate records and merge the documents manually. However, the
entire process needs to be automated with as little interaction as
possible. And as nice as it would be to have someone simply create the
procedure for me, I'm actually interested in learning how to do it
myself. Suggestions anyone?
There is no doubt that it is possible to automate the whole process other
that the selection of which mail merge main document (template in your
terminology) is to be used. For that, I would create a userform containing
a listbox that lists the templates and the user would select the one that
they wanted to use and then would click a button on the form and the rest
would be done. Most of the code for the splitting and saving of the files
is in the Addin that I created that can be downloaded from Graham's website
that you have already looked at.
It will be a good learning exercise.
For the Userform part, See the article "How to create a Userform" at:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Userforms/CreateAUserForm.htm
The following shows you how to load a listbox on a user form with the data
and then determine which item from the list the user has selected
This routine loads a listbox with client details stored in a table in a
separate
document (which makes it easy to maintain with additions, deletions etc.),
that document being saved as Clients.Doc for the following code.
On the UserForm, have a list box (ListBox1) and a Command Button
(CommandButton1) and use the following code in the UserForm_Initialize() and
the CommandButton1_Click() routines
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
Dim sourcedoc As Document, i As Integer, j As Integer, myitem As Range,
m As Long, n As Long
' Modify the path in the following line so that it matches where you
saved Clients.doc
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
' Open the file containing the client details
Set sourcedoc = Documents.Open(FileName:="e:\worddocs\Clients.doc")
' Get the number or clients = number of rows in the table of client
details less one
i = sourcedoc.Tables(1).Rows.Count - 1
' Get the number of columns in the table of client details
j = sourcedoc.Tables(1).Columns.Count
' Set the number of columns in the Listbox to match
' the number of columns in the table of client details
ListBox1.ColumnCount = j
' Define an array to be loaded with the client data
Dim MyArray() As Variant
'Load client data into MyArray
ReDim MyArray(i, j)
For n = 0 To j - 1
For m = 0 To i - 1
Set myitem = sourcedoc.Tables(1).Cell(m + 2, n + 1).Range
myitem.End = myitem.End - 1
MyArray(m, n) = myitem.Text
Next m
Next n
' Load data into ListBox1
ListBox1.List() = MyArray
' Close the file containing the client details
sourcedoc.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
End Sub
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
Dim i As Integer, Addressee As String
Addressee = ""
For i = 1 To ListBox1.ColumnCount
ListBox1.BoundColumn = i
Addressee = Addressee & ListBox1.Value & vbCr
Next i
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("Addressee").Range.InsertAfter Addressee
UserForm2.Hide
End Sub
The Initialize statement will populate the listbox with the data from the
table and then when a client is selected in from the list and the command
button is clicked, the information for that client will be inserted into a
bookmark in the document. You may want to vary the manner in which it is
inserted to suit our exact requirements, but hopefully this will get you
started.
To make it easy for you, the code has been written so that it will deal with
any number of clients and any number of details about each client. It
assumes that the first row of the table containing the client details is a
header row.

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
> Thanks Doug. And actually - as much as I wanted to complete this
> project myself - it may be more than I can handle with my basic Macro
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> procedure for me, I'm actually interested in learning how to do it
> myself. Suggestions anyone?
Teeroi - 07 Apr 2006 20:45 GMT
Thanks again Doug - tons of very helpful information in that last post.
And I may have been a bit cinfusing in my description of the mail
merge process. Inside of each table is up to 10 different record
"types", each of which requires a different mail merge main document.
Ideally, I need Word to open the table, separate the records by type,
then merge each record to its corresponding mail merge document, and
save eash as its own individual document. As an example:
A B C
Bed Tom Wolfe
Chair Sue Jones
Wall Jim Smith
Wall John Henry
Each record where A=Bed would merge with bed.doc and save as "B C.doc"
Each record where A=Chair would merge with chair.doc and save as "B
C.doc"
Each record where A=Wall would merge with wall.doc and save as "B
C.doc"
I've worked out the datasource connection, the mail merge itself, and
the autosave and file naming process. The part I'm stuck on is
choosing the mail merge main document based on record type. I hope
this makes things a bit clearer.
Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 09 Apr 2006 18:27 GMT
To automate this, it's going to be a "roll your own" situation.

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
> Thanks again Doug - tons of very helpful information in that last post.
> And I may have been a bit cinfusing in my description of the mail
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> choosing the mail merge main document based on record type. I hope
> this makes things a bit clearer.
Teeroi - 11 Apr 2006 13:21 GMT
Thanks Doug - I was afraid you might say that. How would I contact you
directly if I wanted to have you put a proposal together for a project
such as this?
Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 12 Apr 2006 21:16 GMT
There's something fairly OBVIOUS to be removed from my email address.
dkr@REMVOVETHISmvps.org

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
> Thanks Doug - I was afraid you might say that. How would I contact you
> directly if I wanted to have you put a proposal together for a project
> such as this?
Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 12 Apr 2006 21:17 GMT
There's something fairly OBVIOUS to be removed from my email address.
dkr@REMVOVETHISmvps.org

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
> Thanks Doug - I was afraid you might say that. How would I contact you
> directly if I wanted to have you put a proposal together for a project
> such as this?