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#1
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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Is There a Better Way to Create a List Sorted by Category?
I don't usually work with Microsoft Word, but over the past few months
I've been supporting a user community that does a lot of mail merges, and I've noticed a pattern: On four occasions, I've been asked to help with mail merges, and on all four occasions the merge has been what Microsoft refers to as a "List Sorted by Category". These are mail merges in which the data exists in a two-level hierarchy. (See http:// support.microsoft.com/kb/294686.) Word was clearly not designed to handle this type of mail merge, and the solution suggested in the knowledgebase is a bad solution. I can't train users to implement that solution, and I find it very difficult to support mail merges which implement that solution. Therefore, I'm looking for a better solution. Does anyone know of: 1) a third-party tool which works with Microsoft Word to produce this type of merge; 2) a different word processor which handles this type of merge better than Word; or 3) a database reporting tool which can produce a formatted document and export it to Word? (Note that Microsoft Access comes close to satisfying No. 3, since its reporting feature can process multiple levels of hierarchy, produce a document, and export it to Word; but the export fails when any substantial formatting is applied to the document.) -TC |
#2
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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Is There a Better Way to Create a List Sorted by Category?
You are right that Word does not have the capability out of the box to
perform that sort of merge. On the few occasions where I have had to create that sort of output, I have done in entirely with Access (including the printing), but setting up an Access report to resemble a formatted Word document is not something that is easily done by someone with limited experience. Similarly the method in the KB article to which you make reference. The article at http://cornell.veplan.net/article.aspx?&a=3815 is quite good in that it gives an explanation of the purpose of each part of the construction, and the most common problem that occurs with people who have tried that and can't get it to work is that they fail to start off with a catalog or directory type merge. Another drawback with both of those methods is that you cannot make use of a field from the first record in the group after the list part of the document. It is of course possible to construct a "roll-your-own" equivalent to mail merge using vba with a template containing docvariable fields in place of merge fields and creating a new document from that template for the first record in each group as the code iterates through the datasource, adding rows to a table that is set up in the template to contain the data from the fields for the subsequent members of the group. Setting that up is not something that the inexperienced user can do without first coming to grips with vba. Depending upon how many variations of the theme you need to deal with, it could be a possibility. The other day, someone posted a link to http://www.mapilab.com/outlook/mail_merge/ that apparently has the ability to add attachments to a mail merge that is executed to email (as an alternative to an add-in that I had created), and I am not sure what other capabilities it has, or if it would be suitable for your purpose. -- 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 "TC" wrote in message ... I don't usually work with Microsoft Word, but over the past few months I've been supporting a user community that does a lot of mail merges, and I've noticed a pattern: On four occasions, I've been asked to help with mail merges, and on all four occasions the merge has been what Microsoft refers to as a "List Sorted by Category". These are mail merges in which the data exists in a two-level hierarchy. (See http:// support.microsoft.com/kb/294686.) Word was clearly not designed to handle this type of mail merge, and the solution suggested in the knowledgebase is a bad solution. I can't train users to implement that solution, and I find it very difficult to support mail merges which implement that solution. Therefore, I'm looking for a better solution. Does anyone know of: 1) a third-party tool which works with Microsoft Word to produce this type of merge; 2) a different word processor which handles this type of merge better than Word; or 3) a database reporting tool which can produce a formatted document and export it to Word? (Note that Microsoft Access comes close to satisfying No. 3, since its reporting feature can process multiple levels of hierarchy, produce a document, and export it to Word; but the export fails when any substantial formatting is applied to the document.) -TC |
#3
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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Is There a Better Way to Create a List Sorted by Category?
You might also take a look at the tutorial that fellow MVP, Macropod has
just posted at http://www.wopr.com:80/cgi-bin/w3t/s...?Number=731107 -- 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 "TC" wrote in message ... I don't usually work with Microsoft Word, but over the past few months I've been supporting a user community that does a lot of mail merges, and I've noticed a pattern: On four occasions, I've been asked to help with mail merges, and on all four occasions the merge has been what Microsoft refers to as a "List Sorted by Category". These are mail merges in which the data exists in a two-level hierarchy. (See http:// support.microsoft.com/kb/294686.) Word was clearly not designed to handle this type of mail merge, and the solution suggested in the knowledgebase is a bad solution. I can't train users to implement that solution, and I find it very difficult to support mail merges which implement that solution. Therefore, I'm looking for a better solution. Does anyone know of: 1) a third-party tool which works with Microsoft Word to produce this type of merge; 2) a different word processor which handles this type of merge better than Word; or 3) a database reporting tool which can produce a formatted document and export it to Word? (Note that Microsoft Access comes close to satisfying No. 3, since its reporting feature can process multiple levels of hierarchy, produce a document, and export it to Word; but the export fails when any substantial formatting is applied to the document.) -TC |
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