When I upgraded to Office 2003 I was disappointed in the "improvements" to
Word's mail merge. The most annoying change is not having the choice of not
using the pop up window and the default for the list data going to "My Data
Sources". I do work for several organizations and do not want my lists
included in one file. Also, you can't sort on more than one criteria unless
done before beginning the mail merge. I understand most of what you were
trying to do, but it made it worse for advanced users. Thank you for
allowing me to comment.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...merge.fi elds

You can reinstate the previous interface by selecting Customize from the
Tools menu and then on the Customize dialog, selecting the Commands tab and
then the All Commands category and then scroll down through the list of
commands until you come to the mailmerge helper item and click and drag it
onto a tool bar.

Note however, with the new interface, your data sources are NOT all in one
file. They will be in separate files in the one folder which is named "My
Data Sources"

--
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
"Ann Shaw" wrote in message
...
When I upgraded to Office 2003 I was disappointed in the "improvements" to
Word's mail merge. The most annoying change is not having the choice of
not
using the pop up window and the default for the list data going to "My
Data
Sources". I do work for several organizations and do not want my lists
included in one file. Also, you can't sort on more than one criteria
unless
done before beginning the mail merge. I understand most of what you were
trying to do, but it made it worse for advanced users. Thank you for
allowing me to comment.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...merge.fi elds

Doug -

I have already done as you suggested and do my best to ignore the annoying
mail merge window. I use the toolbar as much as possible, but still miss the
old mail merge. As for the My Data Sources, I still prefer to keep all
related files in the same place (the table, main document and resulting
document. Again, thanks for your help and allowing me to comment.
Ann

"Doug Robbins" wrote:

You can reinstate the previous interface by selecting Customize from the
Tools menu and then on the Customize dialog, selecting the Commands tab and
then the All Commands category and then scroll down through the list of
commands until you come to the mailmerge helper item and click and drag it
onto a tool bar.

Note however, with the new interface, your data sources are NOT all in one
file. They will be in separate files in the one folder which is named "My
Data Sources"

--
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
"Ann Shaw" wrote in message
...
When I upgraded to Office 2003 I was disappointed in the "improvements" to
Word's mail merge. The most annoying change is not having the choice of
not
using the pop up window and the default for the list data going to "My
Data
Sources". I do work for several organizations and do not want my lists
included in one file. Also, you can't sort on more than one criteria
unless
done before beginning the mail merge. I understand most of what you were
trying to do, but it made it worse for advanced users. Thank you for
allowing me to comment.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...merge.fi elds

The customization that I described will give you back the "old mail merge"

--
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
"Ann Shaw" wrote in message
news
Doug -

I have already done as you suggested and do my best to ignore the annoying
mail merge window. I use the toolbar as much as possible, but still miss
the
old mail merge. As for the My Data Sources, I still prefer to keep all
related files in the same place (the table, main document and resulting
document. Again, thanks for your help and allowing me to comment.
Ann

"Doug Robbins" wrote:

You can reinstate the previous interface by selecting Customize from the
Tools menu and then on the Customize dialog, selecting the Commands tab
and
then the All Commands category and then scroll down through the list of
commands until you come to the mailmerge helper item and click and drag
it
onto a tool bar.

Note however, with the new interface, your data sources are NOT all in
one
file. They will be in separate files in the one folder which is named
"My
Data Sources"

--
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
"Ann Shaw" wrote in message
...
When I upgraded to Office 2003 I was disappointed in the "improvements"
to
Word's mail merge. The most annoying change is not having the choice
of
not
using the pop up window and the default for the list data going to "My
Data
Sources". I do work for several organizations and do not want my lists
included in one file. Also, you can't sort on more than one criteria
unless
done before beginning the mail merge. I understand most of what you
were
trying to do, but it made it worse for advanced users. Thank you for
allowing me to comment.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the
"I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...merge.fi elds

My Data Sources is a sub-folder off My Documents. You can if you prefer
reset it to another sub-folder off My Documents with a registry edit. Thus
you could keep a folder for merge documents and their data files.

As for the old mail merge, you can duplicate it almost in its entirety - see
http://www.gmayor.com/mail_merge_lab...th_word_xp.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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


Ann Shaw wrote:
Doug -

I have already done as you suggested and do my best to ignore the
annoying mail merge window. I use the toolbar as much as possible,
but still miss the old mail merge. As for the My Data Sources, I
still prefer to keep all related files in the same place (the table,
main document and resulting document. Again, thanks for your help
and allowing me to comment.
Ann

"Doug Robbins" wrote:

You can reinstate the previous interface by selecting Customize from
the Tools menu and then on the Customize dialog, selecting the
Commands tab and then the All Commands category and then scroll down
through the list of commands until you come to the mailmerge helper
item and click and drag it onto a tool bar.

Note however, with the new interface, your data sources are NOT all
in one file. They will be in separate files in the one folder which
is named "My Data Sources"

--
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
"Ann Shaw" wrote in message
...
When I upgraded to Office 2003 I was disappointed in the
"improvements" to Word's mail merge. The most annoying change is
not having the choice of not
using the pop up window and the default for the list data going to
"My Data
Sources". I do work for several organizations and do not want my
lists included in one file. Also, you can't sort on more than one
criteria unless
done before beginning the mail merge. I understand most of what
you were trying to do, but it made it worse for advanced users.
Thank you for allowing me to comment.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to
the suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion,
click the "I Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see
the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader
and then click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...merge.fi elds