[Jesse Aufiero]

Peter,

Thank you for such a comprehensive answer. After spending a fair amount of
time in Word 2003, I'm not sure how I would nest if...then statements using
a 'word field' from the mail merge toolbar. Can you put me on the right
track here? Would it involve bookmarking the results of a given if...then
somehow?

Suppose I have two columns in my sql view that are accessible to the mail
merge: Customer and Quantity. How would I accomplish the following in Word:

if Customer = 'Acme' then
if Quantity 100 then
return 'Acme bulk purchase'
else
return 'Acme purchase'
end if
else
if Quantity 50 then
return 'bulk purchase'
else
return 'purchase
end if
end if


"Peter Jamieson" wrote in message
...
I can't point you to good examples of complex merges and I'm not really
sure it would help you if I could. Of course Word can do quite complex
merges, but the field language in particular is not well-specified, can be
unpredictable, and making the transition from one version of Word to the
next can be problematic.

To cover some of the specific points you raise...

My templates pull fields from a sql server view into a form letter via a
stored procedure in sql server. there are many if...then conditions,
including nested if...thens throughout the stored procedure code.

In Word 2003 you'll probably have difficulty even setting up a SQL Server
stored procedure as a data source. As far as I know you can only do it
successfully when the procedure has a single statement that returns rows.
Otherwise the procedure returns multiple result sets that Word does not
process correctly.

here, but rather a real world example of a complex mail merge letter with
formulas,

The only formulas in the field language are numeric formulas, although you
can do date manipulation with them and use other tricks. But there are no
text functions such as left, right, mid etc. in the field language. You
can obvioulsy do stuff in the data source, and you can use the Word
Mailmerge events to do per-record processing.

formatting, and if...then logic.

You can out what formatting facilities exist in Word Help. You can usually
translate if...then...else logic into Word IF fields - sometimes using =
fields to test conditions can help. There is a limit of 20 levels of
nesting (personally, I would avoid trying to go even close to that). IF
fields can suffer from problems related to the execution sequence of
nested fields (try using SEQ fields in IF fields, for example)

I'm just trying to gauge if word is robust enough to handle my templates.

You must have a pretty good reason to move away from an established
solution, but if I were in your shoes, I'd start with the thing I
considered my most complex application, start modelling it in Word, and
see how it went. Then test, test, test.

Peter Jamieson



"Jesse Aufiero" wrote in message
...
I'm considering migrating some very complex templates from my own
proprietary application into word 2003. My templates pull fields from a
sql server view into a form letter via a stored procedure in sql server.
there are many if...then conditions, including nested if...thens
throughout the stored procedure code.

Before I begin to attempt this migration into a word 2003 mail merge
template, is there a good resource I can turn to to see just what word
2003's letter mail merge is capable of? I'm not looking for a tutorial
here, but rather a real world example of a complex mail merge letter with
formulas, formatting, and if...then logic. I'm just trying to gauge if
word is robust enough to handle my templates.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!