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Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
Anne Troy
 
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Default MS Word form fields versus mail merge fields

The answer depends entirely on how many documents are created "at once" and
whether and where you're storing the data...

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Hope it helps!
Anne Troy
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Hi,
I have an application which needs to communicate with MS Word to
generate documents.
Typically my application will want to generate 1 document at a time.
The user will select a template name and then choose to build a
document.
My application then has the responsibility of populating the document
with values.
I have created document templates in MS Word which contain form fields.
I have given my fields bookmark names.
I am using COM automation to communicate with Word and I am using
WordBasic interface to call the functions I need performed.
I can start Word and give it a template to open. I then ask it for all
the bookmark names.
I then cycle through each bookmark and populate it via doing a 'GoTo'
bookmark followed by an 'Insert'. It all seems to be working.
Questions
1) what about using mail merge fields. Can I achieve the same thing
using a mail merge ? Is it any easier ? Do I need to build a data
source file containing all my data and then do a mail merge ?
2) the WordBasic interface is now old technology. What is a more modern
approach to achieving my requirements ?
3) In general what is the best approach to having my application
generate Word documents for my users ?

Thanks