We are considering using MS Word to build a mail-merge system for customer
communications. We typically merge 400,000 names creating 3 output documents
each, split into 50-100 output files based on postal presort trays. We have
written a prototype VBA app accessing SQL Server and demonstrated it can be
done, but Word merge performance is not as good as we would like. Also, the
user interface to create the merge fields in the Word doc isn't as
user-friendly as the end-users in marketing would like.

Are there any tips/tricks for making Word merges perform better in these
kind of large volumes?

Are there any tools for front-ending the creation of the merge master doc
and the merge fields to make it more user friendly?

Thanks,
Don Plaster