[Lynda[_2_]]

Hi:

I hope you can help me with this one. I have a dataset of records (.csv
file) and I want to have certain letters created in mail merge based on the
value in the TermYear field of each of these records. In other words, if
TermYear is Spring, merge to Spring letter, otherwise merge to Fall letter.
Currently, I have created a letter that just has an IF/THEN?Else statement
that grabs the correct letter and merges to it. I find this somewhat
awkward though and wondered if there is a better way to accomplish this.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Lynda

[Peter Jamieson]

Longer term it will probably be better to set up one letter (i.e. Mailmerge
main document) for each term, and use the Mailmerge Recipients dialog
(depends on the version of Word) to select the applicable records. Within
that dialog, select the little drop-down at the top of the TermYear field
and select what you need (what does the field actually contain? Does it
contain a year and a term, or just a term?). You may need to select the
Advanced... option there which leads to another dialog box where you can set
up the criteria.

Once you have made the selection, save the mail merge main document, close
it, and re-open it to ensure that your selections have not been lost or
altered (Word does not have a particularly good track record in this area).
Then test the merge (e.g. by merging to a new document).

Peter Jamieson
"Lynda" wrote in message
...
Hi:

I hope you can help me with this one. I have a dataset of records (.csv
file) and I want to have certain letters created in mail merge based on
the value in the TermYear field of each of these records. In other words,
if TermYear is Spring, merge to Spring letter, otherwise merge to Fall
letter. Currently, I have created a letter that just has an IF/THEN?Else
statement that grabs the correct letter and merges to it. I find this
somewhat awkward though and wondered if there is a better way to
accomplish this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Lynda

[Lynda[_2_]]

Thanks for your help with this. Your solution does not work in my case
because the csv file has so many fields that the headers disappear in the
recipient list so it is not possible to see the dropdown and hence restrict
the list based on the value in that field.

I cannot load the csv into Excel or Access either because there are too many
fields.

Lynda



"Peter Jamieson" wrote in message
...
Longer term it will probably be better to set up one letter (i.e.
Mailmerge main document) for each term, and use the Mailmerge Recipients
dialog (depends on the version of Word) to select the applicable records.
Within that dialog, select the little drop-down at the top of the TermYear
field and select what you need (what does the field actually contain? Does
it contain a year and a term, or just a term?). You may need to select the
Advanced... option there which leads to another dialog box where you can
set up the criteria.

Once you have made the selection, save the mail merge main document, close
it, and re-open it to ensure that your selections have not been lost or
altered (Word does not have a particularly good track record in this
area). Then test the merge (e.g. by merging to a new document).

Peter Jamieson
"Lynda" wrote in message
...
Hi:

I hope you can help me with this one. I have a dataset of records (.csv
file) and I want to have certain letters created in mail merge based on
the value in the TermYear field of each of these records. In other
words, if TermYear is Spring, merge to Spring letter, otherwise merge to
Fall letter. Currently, I have created a letter that just has an
IF/THEN?Else statement that grabs the correct letter and merges to it. I
find this somewhat awkward though and wondered if there is a better way
to accomplish this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Lynda

[Peter Jamieson]

Which version of Word?

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"Lynda" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your help with this. Your solution does not work in my case
because the csv file has so many fields that the headers disappear in the
recipient list so it is not possible to see the dropdown and hence
restrict the list based on the value in that field.

I cannot load the csv into Excel or Access either because there are too
many fields.

Lynda



"Peter Jamieson" wrote in message
...
Longer term it will probably be better to set up one letter (i.e.
Mailmerge main document) for each term, and use the Mailmerge Recipients
dialog (depends on the version of Word) to select the applicable records.
Within that dialog, select the little drop-down at the top of the
TermYear field and select what you need (what does the field actually
contain? Does it contain a year and a term, or just a term?). You may
need to select the Advanced... option there which leads to another dialog
box where you can set up the criteria.

Once you have made the selection, save the mail merge main document,
close it, and re-open it to ensure that your selections have not been
lost or altered (Word does not have a particularly good track record in
this area). Then test the merge (e.g. by merging to a new document).

Peter Jamieson
"Lynda" wrote in message
...
Hi:

I hope you can help me with this one. I have a dataset of records (.csv
file) and I want to have certain letters created in mail merge based on
the value in the TermYear field of each of these records. In other
words, if TermYear is Spring, merge to Spring letter, otherwise merge to
Fall letter. Currently, I have created a letter that just has an
IF/THEN?Else statement that grabs the correct letter and merges to it.
I find this somewhat awkward though and wondered if there is a better
way to accomplish this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Lynda

[Lynda[_2_]]

I am using Word 2003.

Lynda

"Peter Jamieson" wrote in message
...
Which version of Word?

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"Lynda" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your help with this. Your solution does not work in my case
because the csv file has so many fields that the headers disappear in the
recipient list so it is not possible to see the dropdown and hence
restrict the list based on the value in that field.

I cannot load the csv into Excel or Access either because there are too
many fields.

Lynda



"Peter Jamieson" wrote in message
...
Longer term it will probably be better to set up one letter (i.e.
Mailmerge main document) for each term, and use the Mailmerge Recipients
dialog (depends on the version of Word) to select the applicable
records. Within that dialog, select the little drop-down at the top of
the TermYear field and select what you need (what does the field
actually contain? Does it contain a year and a term, or just a term?).
You may need to select the Advanced... option there which leads to
another dialog box where you can set up the criteria.

Once you have made the selection, save the mail merge main document,
close it, and re-open it to ensure that your selections have not been
lost or altered (Word does not have a particularly good track record in
this area). Then test the merge (e.g. by merging to a new document).

Peter Jamieson
"Lynda" wrote in message
...
Hi:

I hope you can help me with this one. I have a dataset of records
(.csv file) and I want to have certain letters created in mail merge
based on the value in the TermYear field of each of these records. In
other words, if TermYear is Spring, merge to Spring letter, otherwise
merge to Fall letter. Currently, I have created a letter that just has
an IF/THEN?Else statement that grabs the correct letter and merges to
it. I find this somewhat awkward though and wondered if there is a
better way to accomplish this. Any suggestions would be greatly
appreciated.

Lynda

[Peter Jamieson]

OK, I'm not sure precisely what you are seeing but here each column in the
Mail Merge Recipients is wide enough to accommodate the title, but if you
need to scroll sideways to find the field you want to filter on, the column
headers do disappear after a few hundred columns. Stuff like that. If that's
what's happening it should be OK to select the first column, click the
dropdown, click (Advanced...), then enter the expression you want in the
Query Options|Filter records dialog.

If you are seeing something else, let us know.

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"Lynda" wrote in message
...

I am using Word 2003.

Lynda

"Peter Jamieson" wrote in message
...
Which version of Word?

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"Lynda" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your help with this. Your solution does not work in my case
because the csv file has so many fields that the headers disappear in
the recipient list so it is not possible to see the dropdown and hence
restrict the list based on the value in that field.

I cannot load the csv into Excel or Access either because there are too
many fields.

Lynda



"Peter Jamieson" wrote in message
...
Longer term it will probably be better to set up one letter (i.e.
Mailmerge main document) for each term, and use the Mailmerge
Recipients dialog (depends on the version of Word) to select the
applicable records. Within that dialog, select the little drop-down at
the top of the TermYear field and select what you need (what does the
field actually contain? Does it contain a year and a term, or just a
term?). You may need to select the Advanced... option there which leads
to another dialog box where you can set up the criteria.

Once you have made the selection, save the mail merge main document,
close it, and re-open it to ensure that your selections have not been
lost or altered (Word does not have a particularly good track record in
this area). Then test the merge (e.g. by merging to a new document).

Peter Jamieson
"Lynda" wrote in message
...
Hi:

I hope you can help me with this one. I have a dataset of records
(.csv file) and I want to have certain letters created in mail merge
based on the value in the TermYear field of each of these records. In
other words, if TermYear is Spring, merge to Spring letter, otherwise
merge to Fall letter. Currently, I have created a letter that just has
an IF/THEN?Else statement that grabs the correct letter and merges to
it. I find this somewhat awkward though and wondered if there is a
better way to accomplish this. Any suggestions would be greatly
appreciated.

Lynda