Accessing the MS Outlook "mystery field" from Word 2003 mail merge....

[John Nasta]

Does anybody know how to filter data in the
comments/memo/whatever-it's-called field in Outlook contact data during a
mail merge (creating labels)? The problem I'm finding is that this field
doesn't seem to have a name. I'm talking about the big "whiteboard" box that
you can copy & paste all sorts of various stuff into.

I can find records that contain certain data in that field by doing a simple
"Find" in Outlook but if I try to do a mail merge from Word I don't seem to
be able to filter by data in that field. I don't see it in the list of
fields and it doesn't appear to have a name in the contact details screen.

What I like to do is put a simple code like 20070912-promo001 in that field
so that I A) have a way of creating a label to send a certain promotion to
that person on a certain date, and B) always have a record in their contact
data showing which promos I have sent them and when. I am trying to see if
there is a way to do this from Word rather than initiating the merge from
Outlook.

Thanks for any info,
John Nasta

 

[Graham Mayor]

The field is called Notes and is available if you merge from Outlook
http://www.gmayor.com/mailmerge_from_outlook.htm

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[John Nasta]

Thanks Graham,

The problem with initiating the merge from Outlook (the way I have done it
for years) is that it seems there is no way to add delivery point barcoding
when the merge is initiated from Outlook 2003. I used to be able to do this
from Outlook 2000, and it seems to be an oversight in Outlook 2003.

If I initiate the merge from Word 2003, I can add the barcoding but I
haven't found a way to filter by info in the "Notes" field, which is where I
store info about which promotions to mail to which clients on which dates.
The "Notes" field does not appear in the "Edit Recipients" dialog box in
Word 2003.

I tried copying & pasting the barcode field from a Word-generated merge
document to one initiated from Outlook, and also tried making a merge
document in Word that has the barcode field, saving it, and then choosing
"existing document" when I start my merge from Outlook. Both made the
program hang. A box pops up saying that I have an invalid field and whether
I click Remove, OK, or Cancel, the box just keeps popping up again and I
have to kill the process in Task Manager.

Any ideas or info is appreciated. Of course the thing that bugs me most is
that I used to be able to do this with Outlook 2000 and it is vital to how I
market my business. If there is no fix I will just have to give up using
barcoding and hope that it doesn't have a negative effect on getting my
mailings out. Maybe somebody at Microsoft can create a patch to fix this.

John Nasta

 

[Graham Mayor]

The barcode produced by Word is POSTNET.

The USPS no longer accepts that format for bulk mail discounts -- see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897290. You might as well not use the
barcode feature at all.

However as the barcode is merely a field deriving bar code data from the zip
code data, there is no reason why you cannot build a field in your merge
document whatever your data source. We don't use barcodes where I live, but
something of the order of
{BARCODE { Mergefield Zip} \b}
is probably all that is required.

Merging from Outlook gives you access to all the fields in your data,
provides the filtering power of Outlook and any editing of the data should
be done through Outlook.


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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[John Nasta]

Thanks Graham,

I have since heard in another group as well that the USPS no longer accepts
the barcodes that Word generates. I'm just going to forget about using them
and assume that there is no reason why the postal service should not be able
to scan my cleanly printed labels & envelopes.

I did try putting some code in my merge document and the result was that it
just printed the code. I used one of the examples from this page:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HP051862051033.aspx?pid=CH061047251033

I used { BARCODE ENV_ZIPCODE1 \b \u }

Anyway, I don't plan to pursue it any further.

Thanks,
John Nasta

 

[Graham Mayor]

That example would not have worked as it does not reflect the fieldnames
from Outlook or even use a mergefield for the ZIP code. The code I
originally posted should work, but only if you use CTRL+F9 for both pairs of
field brackets {}

To add the \u switch

{BARCODE { Mergefield Zip} \b \u}

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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