Opening note: the below questions are asked in the light of "how can I do
this without using any macros?" Programming is a given; I'd like to know if
anyone has any non-programming solutions.


First: I have a four-section mail merge main document. Suppose I merge it
using three mail merge data source records; this results in a merged document
with twelve sections--four for the first record, four for the second record,
and four for the third record. Here's my question: is there a way to print
only the "second" section for each record? I know that, after the merge, Word
probably views all the sections as "equals"--it doesn't keep up with "hey,
section 2 is the second section for the first recipient and section 6 is the
second section for the second recipient." But I just wanted to see if anyone
knows how this could/should be done.


Second--dropping back a step. Let's assume I have a normal (not mail merged)
document with twenty sections. The question: DURING the print process, I'd
like to be able to specify section(s) to print. For instance, I click
"File--Print..." and I get a box that lists the sections in the document; I
set check boxes to select the desired sections. Is this possible? Note: the
sections are NOT contiguous--if they were, I know that I could simply click
"File--Print..." and in the Pages option for "Page Range" I could type the
starting and ending section numbers like "s4-s9".

I'm DEFINITELY not a WordPro fan, but we currently use WordPro at my job and
this feature is invaluable. (I'm trying to see if there's a way to do
something similar in Word so I can suggest for us to migrate our documents to
Word--but if selective-section printing isn't possible, the deal's off!)
Hey--if WordPro has it, why doesn't Word?


Also, is there a way to get Word to store section NAMES so that I could
select specific sections to print?

My current "solution" to this is simply previewing sections--using the
"Next" and "Previous" buttons to browse by section--but you have to write
down the section numbers to get that to work.

--
"Some weasel took the cork out of my lunch."--W.C. Fields

Answers in-line...

Beachie wrote:
Opening note: the below questions are asked in the light of "how can
I do this without using any macros?" Programming is a given; I'd like
to know if anyone has any non-programming solutions.


First: I have a four-section mail merge main document. Suppose I
merge it using three mail merge data source records; this results in
a merged document with twelve sections--four for the first record,
four for the second record, and four for the third record. Here's my
question: is there a way to print only the "second" section for each
record? I know that, after the merge, Word probably views all the
sections as "equals"--it doesn't keep up with "hey, section 2 is the
second section for the first recipient and section 6 is the second
section for the second recipient." But I just wanted to see if anyone
knows how this could/should be done.

You're correct that Word doesn't know which section is which. But if you
know, put the correct section numbers into the Pages box of the Print
dialog:
s2,s6
will get you just those two sections.

Second--dropping back a step. Let's assume I have a normal (not mail
merged) document with twenty sections. The question: DURING the print
process, I'd like to be able to specify section(s) to print. For
instance, I click "File--Print..." and I get a box that lists the
sections in the document; I set check boxes to select the desired
sections. Is this possible? Note: the sections are NOT
contiguous--if they were, I know that I could simply click
"File--Print..." and in the Pages option for "Page Range" I could
type the starting and ending section numbers like "s4-s9".

As above, separate the s-numbers for non-consecutive sections with a comma.
If you want to print sections 3, 5, and 7 through 9, you can enter
s3,s5,s7-s9

For general reference,
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting...leSections.htm.

I'm DEFINITELY not a WordPro fan, but we currently use WordPro at my
job and this feature is invaluable. (I'm trying to see if there's a
way to do something similar in Word so I can suggest for us to
migrate our documents to Word--but if selective-section printing
isn't possible, the deal's off!) Hey--if WordPro has it, why doesn't
Word?

This is where there is no non-macro solution. I could certainly provide this
functionality with VBA, probably with less than an hour's effort. Convincing
Microsoft that there's a business case for building it into the base product
will be much harder. They've heard the argument about "product XYZ has
feature ABC, so why doesn't Word?" about a zillion times, and it carries no
weight at all; the right question is, "How many more copies of Office will
we sell?"

Also, is there a way to get Word to store section NAMES so that I
could select specific sections to print?

My current "solution" to this is simply previewing sections--using the
"Next" and "Previous" buttons to browse by section--but you have to
write down the section numbers to get that to work.

Not without macros. There isn't anywhere to store section names in the
bog-standard document. Again, it's not difficult with macros.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org