[Desamona]

Our office runs Microsoft Office Standard Edition, but I run Pro at home. I
am a novice/intermediate user of MO Word and basic user of MO Excel. Do not
have rights to Access at work.
I can learn quick, especially if someone points me to somewhere I can learn
online the information.

Our office has about 15 different boilerplate letters that we send out to
clients in response to requests for information. Most of the paragraphs in
the letters are repeating, but could be condensed down to AutoText entries,
and each letter generated on the fly. The difficulties lie in the fact that
some of the most used paragraphs need to contain information specific to each
individual requesting information. Other times, the name of the client
appears several times in the letter, in several paragraphs. And the usual
issue of adding the address of the requestor to each generated letter.
A mail merge is not probably not helpful in that the paragraphs will be
changing based on individual needs, the letters will be generated/typed as
the requests come in, and the editable fields seem to be somewhat limiting.
But admittidly, I do not know much about mail merge other than the very basic
uses.
Form entries seemed to be the way to go at first, but the address field when
modified into a formtext is not picked up by the envelopes automatic sniffer,
as well as it doesn't eliminate the 15 different letters.
I seem to recall a word document a long time ago that when you opened it, it
would automatically pop up with a small window prompting you to enter
information. Once all the popups were satisfied, it generated a letter that
you could see and modify if needed, print, and that would work with the
envelopes sniffer.
Am I just dreaming? If not, is it possible to have a pop up window that
would do what I described above....and maybe an option for what paragraphs I
want to insert?

Any thoughts?

Thanks for the consideration!
Desamona

[Jay Freedman]

Certainly it's possible to create a template with a UserForm (a custom
dialog box programmed in the VBA macro language, which is the popup you
described).

It would require you to learn at least some VBA (starting with
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Macros...csIn15Mins.htm and
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Userfo...eAUserForm.htm) and put in the
development time, plus the commitment to maintain the template as your
office's needs change.

The better solution, if your office considers it worth that sort of
investment, is commercial software already built for the purpose. Take a
look at DataPrompter (http://www.wordsite.com/products/dpdas.htm), which
will create your letters with a minimum of effort.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Desamona wrote:
Our office runs Microsoft Office Standard Edition, but I run Pro at
home. I am a novice/intermediate user of MO Word and basic user of
MO Excel. Do not have rights to Access at work.
I can learn quick, especially if someone points me to somewhere I can
learn online the information.

Our office has about 15 different boilerplate letters that we send
out to clients in response to requests for information. Most of the
paragraphs in the letters are repeating, but could be condensed down
to AutoText entries, and each letter generated on the fly. The
difficulties lie in the fact that some of the most used paragraphs
need to contain information specific to each individual requesting
information. Other times, the name of the client appears several
times in the letter, in several paragraphs. And the usual issue of
adding the address of the requestor to each generated letter.
A mail merge is not probably not helpful in that the paragraphs will
be changing based on individual needs, the letters will be
generated/typed as the requests come in, and the editable fields seem
to be somewhat limiting. But admittidly, I do not know much about
mail merge other than the very basic uses.
Form entries seemed to be the way to go at first, but the address
field when modified into a formtext is not picked up by the envelopes
automatic sniffer, as well as it doesn't eliminate the 15 different
letters.
I seem to recall a word document a long time ago that when you opened
it, it would automatically pop up with a small window prompting you
to enter information. Once all the popups were satisfied, it
generated a letter that you could see and modify if needed, print,
and that would work with the envelopes sniffer.
Am I just dreaming? If not, is it possible to have a pop up window
that would do what I described above....and maybe an option for what
paragraphs I want to insert?

Any thoughts?

Thanks for the consideration!
Desamona