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MS Office Forum / Word / Mailmerge and Fax / May 2006Mailmerge - Word 2000
I currently have a database holding details of 400+ members. Each member is to receive a letter containing standard text. Depending on circumstances each member will need variable paragraph(s) inserting in the same place within the document (somewhere in the middle of the standard text). There are approximately 20 different paragraphs and one member might need two of the standard paragraphs inserting whilst another might need nine of the standard paragraphs inserting, etc. I can't think of any way to link the individual paragraphs to each member's record in the database to enable me to merge. Is this possible? At the moment the paragraphs are just one long document. The only way I can think of is to save each individual paragraph as an autotext entry and then insert the required paragraph into the individual letters, although this would mean re-typing all the names, address, salutation again. Your advice would be most appreciated. Sandra > I can't think of any way to link the individual paragraphs to each > member's > record in the database to enable me to merge. Is this possible? There are various ways you could approach this, depending on the precise requirements. Broadly speaking, if I were doing it, I would probably try to put most of my effort into getting the data correct: a. add twenty fields/columns to my database, one for each different paragraph b. ensure that each record in my database specified the correct paragraphs c. use { IF } fields in my Word MailMerge Main document to include or exclude each paragraph, e.g. if the fields are named para1,para2,...,para20 and each field contains "Y" to include the paragraph, "" or "N" otherwise: { IF "{ MERGEFIELD para1 \*Upper }" = "Y" "para 1 text here" "" }{ IF "{ MERGEFIELD para2 \*Upper }" = "Y" "para 2 text here" "" }{ IF "{ MERGEFIELD para3 \*Upper }" = "Y" "para 3 text here" "" } and so on, where all the {} are the special field code braces you can insert using ctrl-F9. If, on the other hand, you really have to do this stuff on an ad-hoc basis, you could use ASK fields to prompt the user for information about which paragraphs to include, and test the results. However, in my view that's asking for trouble. Peter Jamieson >I currently have a database holding details of 400+ members. > [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > > Sandra Thank you for your response. Database I understand to insert 20 columns and name them P1 ........P20. I understand to insert in each member's record a 'Y' or 'N' (as appropriate) across the whole 20 columns. To clarify: do I insert the IF fields 20 times (including the appropriate paragraph wording) into the Main document? Also, where it says "para 1 text here" "" do I insert my text "If you have contributed to ............" "" retaining as many quotation marks? { IF "{ MERGEFIELD para1 \*Upper }" = "Y" "para 1 text here" "" }{ IF "{ MERGEFIELD para2 \*Upper }" = "Y" "para 2 text here" "" }{ IF "{ MERGEFIELD para3 \*Upper }" = "Y" "para 3 text here" "" } Sorry for being so pedantic but I've never used { IF } fields before and have only ever done very basic mailmerges. Regards Sandra >> I can't think of any way to link the individual paragraphs to each >> member's [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] >> >> Sandra Hi Sandra, > To clarify: do I insert the IF fields 20 times (including the appropriate > paragraph wording) into the Main document? Yes, it is tedious, but I think it is the simplest approach. The reason I have used this layout { IF "{ MERGEFIELD para1 \*Upper }" = "Y" "para 1 text here" "" }{ IF "{ MERGEFIELD para2 \*Upper }" = "Y" "para 2 text here" "" } is because it does not generate a new paragraph (or carriage return) when the "IF" field evaluates as "false" or "no". > Also, where it says "para 1 text > here" "" do I insert my text "If you have contributed to ............" "" > retaining as many quotation marks? Yes. If I said { IF "{ MERGEFIELD para1 \*Upper }" = "Y" "para 1 text here" "" } but you need to say If you have contributed to ............ use { IF "{ MERGEFIELD para1 \*Upper }" = "Y" "If you have contributed to ............" "" } The second "" is the empty text that is inserted if { MERGEFIELD para1 } is not equal to "Y". If your text contains double-quote characters, you may need to do a bit more than that. I suggest you try doing your merge to a new document, whcih will allow you to check your output without printing anything or sending any e-mails. Peter Jamieson >>> I can't think of any way to link the individual paragraphs to each >>> member's [quoted text clipped - 37 lines] >>> >>> Sandra Hi Peter Thank you so much for your help. One more thing regarding formatting..... Paragraph 1, for example, has a main heading under which there are two bulleted lists. Is it okay to carriage return after the heading and insert numbers bullets, tabs, coloured font, etc, in the IF fields? In other words, format as if it were a normal document? Regards Sandra >Hi Sandra, > [quoted text clipped - 46 lines] >>>> >>>> Sandra You can put carriage returns etc. inside the results of an IF, e.g. { IF x = y "line1 line2 line3" "" } but you may find that there are clashes between the formatting within the IF field and the formatting of the paragraph that contains the IF field. If the IF field does not give you what you need, you can try another approach, which is to use (a) separate document(s) to contain the necessary text and formatting, and use INCLUDETEXT fields to include the necessary document(s) or document chunks. If you need more info. on how to do that, use Google groups to search this newsgroup for examples of INCLUDETEXT, AUTOTEXT et. or ask again. Peter Jamieson > Hi Peter > [quoted text clipped - 64 lines] >>>>> >>>>> Sandra I'm really grateful for all your help. Regards Sandra >You can put carriage returns etc. inside the results of an IF, e.g. > [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] >>>>>> >>>>>> Sandra |
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