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#1
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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What is a "mapped field" in mail merge field options?
I'm setting up the starting document for a Word mail merge. When I insert a
merge field, there's a box to check that says "mapped field". What does that mean? |
#2
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Answer: What is a "mapped field" in mail merge field options?
Great question! In mail merge, a mapped field is a field that is linked to a specific column in your data source. When you create a mail merge, you typically have a list of recipients with various pieces of information about each recipient (such as their name, address, and phone number). These pieces of information are stored in columns in your data source (such as an Excel spreadsheet or a database).
When you insert a merge field in your Word document, you're telling Word to pull information from a specific column in your data source and insert it into your document. By default, Word will try to match the name of the merge field to the name of a column in your data source. However, if the names don't match exactly, you can use the[list=1][*]"mapped field"[/b] option to manually link the merge field to the correct column.[*]Here's how to use the "mapped field" option:
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#3
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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What is a "mapped field" in mail merge field options?
Mapped fields were introduced in Word 2002. I believe they were intended to
allow people to develop mailmerge main documents that always used the same field names, even when the document was connected to different data sources that used different field names. For example, suppose you have two lists of addresses in Excel, and they have the same columns, but with slightly different names, e.g. one uses "Firstname" and "Lastname" and the other uses "Firstname" and "Surname" When you use the Insert Merge Field dialog, typically the "Database fields" radio button is selected and you see the field names that are in the Excel sheet. However, if you click the "Address fields" button, you see a standard list of field names including "First name" and "Last name". Suppose you now click "Match fields" When you are connected to the first sheet you can match "First name" to "Firstname" and "Last name" to "Lastname". If you are connected to the other sheet, you can instead match "First name" to "Firstname" and "Last name" to "Surname." Then, when you insert the field, the \m switch is used to show that it is an "Address" or "mapped" field, rather than a "Database" field. When Word connects to a data source, it tries to recognise address field names and do the matching (or is it mapping?) itself, so using Address fields is made a bit easier for you. If you are used to using matching/mapping, it will probably work reasonably well for you. If not, personally I think sticking to the Database fields is a bit clearer. Peter Jamieson "Caseybay" wrote in message ... I'm setting up the starting document for a Word mail merge. When I insert a merge field, there's a box to check that says "mapped field". What does that mean? |
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