Autotext (and autocorrect) are methods of quickly inserting formatted
texts/tables/graphics etc into documents. Simply select the text and save as
either autotext or autocorrect. The only practical difference between them
is the method of insertion. Both are well covered in Word help.

This would seem a practical way of adding large blocks of text etc to your
merged documents.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



JohnB wrote:
Thanks Graham.

I'll have a look at the site you mention. Could you expand a little
on "from a pre-prepared autotext entry". I can imagine doing a cut
and paste from another document into a merged document but I don't
know what an autotext entry is.

Thanks,JohnB


"Graham Mayor" wrote:

Complex merges in Word are difficult - you have two choices.
1. Create a one row table containing your data fields and directory
merge to a new document to which you can add the supplementary
information eg from a pre-prepared autotext entry
or
2. Investigate whether complex merges can be adapted for your
application -
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindy...tm#ComplexMerg

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



JohnB wrote:
Hi Doug. Thanks for the reply and sorry if my post wasn't clear.
When I said "The table contains the following records:" I meant
that "1 CPU" is a record with "1" as field one and "CPU" as field 2
etc. This is really just a sample that I'm using to see how to
produce a merged Table.

Anyway, I've looked into your suggestion. In both the main or merged
document, when I click on Tables, I only see "Hide Gridlines". Even
if I deselect this and then select "Show Gridlines", no lines
appear. Perhaps there's some other global setting that I need to
change.

In any case, this is all academic if I can't add either text or text
and other tables in the merge.

As for your last comment, I'm a bit confused. Yes, I know I could
use a query to supply the data and if I get it to work the way I
want, I will almost certainly be using a query in a real
application. But, in this sample, this would be no different than
supplying it from the table. I would still want to see the data in
a Word Table and surely supplying records from a query rather than
an Access Table would not make any difference?

Thanks again for the help. JohnB


"Doug Robbins" wrote:

Are CPU, Hard Drive, Keyboard and MSWord, records or fields in the
database? What is the significance of the numbers 1,1,1 and 2 to
the left of them?

Aside, from that, you may have a table in the document created by
executing the merge and not realise it. From the Tables menu,
select Show Gridlines and see if there are any which would indicate
that the data is actually in a table.

Why not just however use a Select Query in Access to display the
data that you want and then use the Publish it with Word item under
the Tools menu in Access to get it into Word.

--
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
"JohnB" wrote in message
...
Hi. A search has given me some info on Directory Merge but I need
more help.
The following was from Doug Robbins:

"Use a Directory type mailmerge main document in which you have a
one row table into the cells of which you insert the mergefields.
If you have nothing else in the document, when you execute the
merge to a new document,
that document will contain a table with a row of data for each
record in the
data source"

I have tried this and I don't get what Doug suggests. My source is
an XP/Access 2000 table and I'm merging to Word 2002. The table
contains the following records:

1 CPU
1 Hard Drive
1 Keyboard
2 MSWord

When I create a Catalogue/Directory merge (using "merge it with
microsoft word" from the Access table) and then merge to a new
document I get:

1 CPU1 Hard drive1 Keyboard2 MS Word2


If I enter a carriage return after the second merge field, I do
get them forming into columns but not in a table. (i.e in a grid
layout like an Excel
spreadsheet or an Access table).

Am I misunderstanding what is supposed to happen? Also, is it
really the case that you can't have anything else in the document?
I was hoping to merge
to a document containing at least some text and ideally some text
and a second table. I can see what happens when you put some text
in - is there no
way around this?

Thanks, JohnB