[Ricky Harris]

I need to use Next Record Mergefield in Publisher 2007, but where is
it?
Somebody in another forum claims that you don't need it because
Publisher is a "layout program and not a word processor".
If true, then I have purchased a lemon of a program that will not do
the most basic of functions, laying out three invitations per A4 sheet
that are personalised using mailmerge and a database (in this case, in
Word). Oh yes, this wonderful version of Publisher will give you a
merged document - with three identical invitations on each page, and
thus three times the number of pages that you should need. And I want
to print on gold paper ...

Please folks - find me a way out of this predicament - I've got little
enough hair left as it is.

[Is anybody else who recently "up"graded to Office 2007 experiencing
what I am - that half the things that used to be simple and even
sometimes reasonably intuitive are now impossible, or take forever to
find - not just once, but every time, because they are not in
intuitive places]?

[Peter Jamieson]

I can't say I use Publisher much, but as I understand it, what you are
supposed to do actually works rather more like a Word Label merge, like
this:
a. create a publication with the page size that you want
b. use Tools-Mailings and Catalogs-Catalog Merge
c. you then (or at some point) see a floating toolbar/menu that lets
you specify how many copies of a "merge area" you want. In your case, I
would guess it is "3 down" and "1 across"
d. you then put everything that you need to repeat into that area -
merge fields, fixed text boxes, pictures etc. Publisher should
automatically display the other 2 copies of that area with data filled
in from records 2 and 3 in your data source
e. you then merge (e.g. to a new publication)

In other words, if you do it that way, you don't need Next record
type fields - unless you want to do something much more sophisticated
(which you probably can't).

Peter Jamieson

http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/shop/...?productid=166

On 25/05/2010 15:52, Ricky Harris wrote:
I need to useNext Record Mergefield in Publisher 2007, but where is
it?
Somebody in another forum claims that you don't need it because
Publisher is a "layout program and not a word processor".
If true, then I have purchased a lemon of a program that will not do
the most basic of functions, laying out three invitations per A4 sheet
that are personalised using mailmerge and a database (in this case, in
Word). Oh yes, this wonderful version of Publisher will give you a
merged document - with three identical invitations on each page, and
thus three times the number of pages that you should need. And I want
to print on gold paper ...

Please folks - find me a way out of this predicament - I've got little
enough hair left as it is.

[Is anybody else who recently "up"graded to Office 2007 experiencing
what I am - that half the things that used to be simple and even
sometimes reasonably intuitive are now impossible, or take forever to
find - not just once, but every time, because they are not in
intuitive places]?

[Ricky Harris]

On 26 May, 02:16, Peter Jamieson
wrote:
I can't say I use Publisher much, but as I understand it, what you are
supposed to do actually works rather more like a Word Label merge, like
this:
* a. create a publication with the page size that you want
* b. use Tools-Mailings and Catalogs-Catalog Merge
* c. you then (or at some point) see a floating toolbar/menu that lets
you specify how many copies of a "merge area" you want. In your case, I
would guess it is "3 down" and "1 across"
* d. you then put everything that you need to repeat into that area -
merge fields, fixed text boxes, pictures etc. Publisher should
automatically display the other 2 copies of that area with data filled
in from records 2 and 3 in your data source
* e. you then merge (e.g. to a new publication)

In other words, if you do it that way, you don't need Next record
type fields - unless you want to do something much more sophisticated
(which you probably can't).

Peter Jamieson

http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/shop/...?productid=166

On 25/05/2010 15:52, Ricky Harris wrote:



I need to useNext Record *Mergefield in Publisher 2007, but where is
it?
Somebody in another forum claims that you don't need it because
Publisher is a "layout program and not a word processor".
If true, then I have purchased a lemon of a program that will not do
the most basic of functions, laying out three invitations per A4 sheet
that are personalised using mailmerge and a database (in this case, in
Word). *Oh yes, this wonderful version of Publisher will give you a
merged document - with three identical invitations on each page, and
thus three times the number of pages that you should need. *And I want
to print on gold paper ...

Please folks - find me a way out of this predicament - I've got little
enough hair left as it is.

[Is anybody else who recently "up"graded to Office 2007 experiencing
what I am - that half the things that used to be simple and even
sometimes reasonably intuitive are now impossible, or take forever to
find - not just once, but every time, because they are not in
intuitive places]?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanks Peter
However, I can't get it to work adequately - Publisher is truly
horribly designed. eg
1) catalog? Why would I, doing invitations (or labels or whatever)
think of looking in somewhere called "Catalog" (assuming I could find
it in the first place?
2) the across/down is the reverse of intuitive for my landscape A4
3) I can put the field I want to insert in the right place/format in
the leftmost invite, but it appears horizontally shifted from the
right place in the other two invites, and there is no obvious fix. It
turns out that you can change the size and shape of that weird,
unexplained gray frame, but when I try to make it 1/3 of the width of
my page, it won't let me write three fields "down" (ie across the
page), but only 2 will "fit".
4) Manoeuvering the boxes around to get anything like what I'm trying
to end up with is a frustrating and ultimately futile waste of time -
time which I can't actually afford at present.
5) Come on Microsoft - how many years have you had to develop a
decent graphic design program? and what a woeful and useless program I
have paid for.

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I have never used Publisher before, but after spending about 5 minutes with
it, starting with a blank Landscape publication

1. Catalog is on the Insert tab
2. Just create one instance of your invitation in the area that contains
the heading Catalog Merge Area
3. Size the text box so that it replicates the required number of times
on the page. e.g. if you only want one across, drag the right boundary so
that only one across will fit on the page)


--
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, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

"Ricky Harris" wrote in message
...
Thanks Peter
However, I can't get it to work adequately - Publisher is truly
horribly designed. eg
1) catalog? Why would I, doing invitations (or labels or whatever)
think of looking in somewhere called "Catalog" (assuming I could find
it in the first place?
2) the across/down is the reverse of intuitive for my landscape A4
3) I can put the field I want to insert in the right place/format in
the leftmost invite, but it appears horizontally shifted from the
right place in the other two invites, and there is no obvious fix. It
turns out that you can change the size and shape of that weird,
unexplained gray frame, but when I try to make it 1/3 of the width of
my page, it won't let me write three fields "down" (ie across the
page), but only 2 will "fit".
4) Manoeuvering the boxes around to get anything like what I'm trying
to end up with is a frustrating and ultimately futile waste of time -
time which I can't actually afford at present.
5) Come on Microsoft - how many years have you had to develop a
decent graphic design program? and what a woeful and useless program I
have paid for.

[Ricky Harris]

On 26 May, 10:23, "Doug Robbins - Word MVP"
wrote:
I have never used Publisher before, but after spending about 5 minutes with
it, starting with a blank Landscape publication

1. * *Catalog is on the Insert tab
2. * *Just create one instance of your invitation in the area that contains
the heading Catalog Merge Area
3. * *Size the text box so that it replicates the required number of times
on the page. *e.g. if you only want one across, drag the right boundary so
that only one across will fit on the page)

--
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, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

"Ricky Harris" wrote in message

...



Thanks Peter
However, I can't get it to work adequately - Publisher is truly
horribly designed. *eg
1) catalog? *Why would I, doing invitations (or labels or whatever)
think of looking in somewhere called "Catalog" (assuming I could find
it in the first place?
2) the across/down is the reverse of intuitive for my landscape A4
3) I can put the field I want to insert in the right place/format in
the leftmost invite, but it appears horizontally shifted from the
right place in the other two invites, and there is no obvious fix. *It
turns out that you can change the size and shape of that weird,
unexplained gray frame, but when I try to make it 1/3 of the width of
my page, it won't let me write three fields "down" (ie across the
page), but only 2 will "fit".
4) Manoeuvering the boxes around to get anything like what I'm trying
to end up with is a frustrating and ultimately futile waste of time -
time which I can't actually afford at present.
5) *Come on Microsoft - how many years have you had to develop a
decent graphic design program? and what a woeful and useless program I
have paid for. *- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanks Doug - I tried it and still cannot deliver the result. Why?
- I created a new pub document with the same dimensions etc but only
the leftmost 1/3 (ie one invite). I then tried to merge catalog with
the same doc file I was using before. (BTW it's made triply difficult
by Microsoft to get such a document - you have to find docx in an
obscure drop-down menu - so some unusual persistence is required even
to get that far).
- Now, unaccountably with this document (but not with its progenitor),
Publisher says it cannot open by docx data file.
- In total frustration I thought, why not write a docx file and work
in Word (which while often not intuitive, at least usually works) -
but lo and behold, this alleged publishing layout program cannot
actually write that layout to Word - only the TEXT part of it. Spare
me!
- Where do I go from here? Probably uninstall Publisher and try to
buy something decent. Meanwhile, set the whole thing up again from
scratch in Word.

[Graham Mayor]

"Ricky Harris" wrote in message
...
Thanks Doug - I tried it and still cannot deliver the result. Why?
- I created a new pub document with the same dimensions etc but only
the leftmost 1/3 (ie one invite). I then tried to merge catalog with
the same doc file I was using before. (BTW it's made triply difficult
by Microsoft to get such a document - you have to find docx in an
obscure drop-down menu - so some unusual persistence is required even
to get that far).
- Now, unaccountably with this document (but not with its progenitor),
Publisher says it cannot open by docx data file.
- In total frustration I thought, why not write a docx file and work
in Word (which while often not intuitive, at least usually works) -
but lo and behold, this alleged publishing layout program cannot
actually write that layout to Word - only the TEXT part of it. Spare
me!
- Where do I go from here? Probably uninstall Publisher and try to
buy something decent. Meanwhile, set the whole thing up again from
scratch in Word.

I have not used Publisher 2007 for mail merge either, however using Doug's
instructions (albeit it seems he was using Publisher 2010 as in Publisher
2007 the Catalog tool is on tools mailings and catalog) it was a simple
task to create such a merge document starting from a blank A4 landscape
page.

The catalog tool puts a large drawing box on the page containing
instructions, which you can drag to the left to create a box one third the
page size. With your cursor in that box, you get a supplementary dialog to
set the repeat, which by dragging the box to one third the page size will
have automatically been set to 1 down 3 across.

In the task pane that will have appeared on the left of the window, select
Use an Existing list or database and click the Next button. The file open
dialog box appears and you can select your Word document containing the data
from there. By default it opens the My Data Sources Folder, but you can
easily select any other folder. Insert the fields from that data source in
the catalog drawing box and the other two copies will populate
automatically.

Word and Publisher formats are entirely different from one another. Word is
a document layout application. Publisher is a page layout application. They
are not intended to exchange documents. You can create this type of merge
document in either application, but you cannot use the same merge document
in both. If you want to create this type of document in Word I would suggest
a label format http://www.gmayor.com/merge_labels_with_word_2007.htm

Where do you go from here? Well you can think about what you are doing and
try again, or you can get yet another application that you won't be able to
use until you learn the basics.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org