Did you think that I was able to get into the processing and that a bad
address may have caused a bar code problem?
No, no. That hadn't occurred to me :-) Word manages to do weird things
without that kind of help.
I never did get into actual
processing of the data, because the text merge never occurred. As I recall,
I first noticed success when I simply edited the bar code line out of the
envelope document. I'm pretty sure that following that, I did re-create the
envelope document without the bar code and, of course, that worked as well.
I know that during the process of learning how to do this thing, I re-created
the document (with the bar code) several times before having the success, so
I don't think it was a case of a corrupted file.
I suggested a bad file (or perhaps the normal.dot template, the file from
which all new documents are created if you don't specify otherwise) because
that's often the source of "weird behavior" one doesn't see, otherwise.
I've been supporting word mail merge, and using it, for over ten years. And
this is the first time I can recall seeing this issue. OTOH, something almost
as weird came up about a year ago - labels in Word 2002/2003 wouldn't
propagate across and entire label sheet. And there it turned out to be a
problem specific to tablet PCs running Windows XP for Tablet PCs. Don't
suppose there's anything "special" about your configuration?
-- Cindy
I removed the requirement for a Postal Bar Code and I'm getting good results
now!
Care to comment on this one now?
Is "interesting" good enough :-)? (If the "now" means you've been waiting
for a reaction, keep in mind we may not be in the same time zones, and that
human beings - even crazy ones who do peer-to-peer support in the free time,
do have to eat and sleep.)
FWIW I've never heard of this problem, before. I assume, though, that you're
in the U.S.A. and that all the addresses are U.S.? (Word's postal bar code is
only valid for U.S. addresses, and I'm not certain the 2000 version still
produces valid barcodes, or if the postal service has changed the
requirements.)
If you set up a new envelope, from scratch, does it work as it should (just
try merging to a new document, don't waste paper :-))? If it does, then I'd
say that the envelope document you were using has become damaged.
-- Cindy
"BudV" wrote:
I start by opening my main document. Then, under the helper, it says "The
main document and data source are now available. Choose the Setup button to
lay out your main document. Since I laid out my main document under a
previous helper operation and saved it, I do nothing for step 1.
I do step 2 by clicking Get Data and opening my data source. At that point,
if I click edit, I can see a Data Form display of my data source, one record
at a time.
In step 3, this time the Merge button is dimmed (it hasn't been before). I
close, and click the Merge to Printer button, and it generates envelopes
without having done any text merge -- just field headings. I click the Start
Mail Merge button, and I get the same results.
In a nutshell, I seem to be skipping a step which actually merges the text
into the envelope format. For whatever it's worth, 1) I see no next record
field, and 2)I'm using envelopes with pre-printed return addresses, so I
have no data for a return address. (When I show the paragraph marks, there
are two marks in the return address area.)
"Cindy Meister" wrote:
What are you clicking in "Step 3"?
It sounds like you're choosing to edit/view the main merge document, which
is fine. And if you click ABC in the toolbar, you should preview the data
in place of the merge fields?
Then look further to the right in the toolbar. You should find buttons there
to merge to the printer, and to merge to a new document. You have to use
these (or the Mail Merge... dialog box) to actually EXECUTE the merge.
-- Cindy
"BudV" wrote:
I have a simple source file created under Word 2000 as a four-column table.
It has the appropriate headings in row 1, and five rows of address test data.
I have a main document formatted for envelope addressing. I've used the
mail merge helper. It appears that I've done everything right, but Step 3
doesn't merge the data into the main document. It just prints the headings
(in double angle brackets) where the data is supposed to be. Can you give me
any clues as to what I should do next to resolve this?
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