2004 Form letters and spouses

[Jammer Six]

I need to write a form letter to a group of people, some of whom have
spouses and some of whom don't.

What I would like would be for the letter to determine if there's a
spouse involved, and if there is, address them correctly.

For instance, if Joe isn't married, I'd like the letter to go to Joe
Smith, and if he is married, I'd like it to go to Joe & Jane Smith.

However, the fields available in the data merge manager don't appear to
include any reference to the spouse field.

I've tried exporting the data to Excel, but when I do that, Entourage
doesn't export categories, so I would have to pick through the list by
hand.

Is there a way to do this?

Thanks!

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

I need to write a form letter to a group of people, some of whom have
spouses and some of whom don't.

What I would like would be for the letter to determine if there's a
spouse involved, and if there is, address them correctly.

For instance, if Joe isn't married, I'd like the letter to go to Joe
Smith, and if he is married, I'd like it to go to Joe & Jane Smith.

However, the fields available in the data merge manager don't appear to
include any reference to the spouse field.

I've tried exporting the data to Excel, but when I do that, Entourage
doesn't export categories, so I would have to pick through the list by
hand.

Is there a way to do this?

My "Export-Import Entourage X" package (works with 2004 also) will export to
a tab-delimited file which you can open in Excel. It includes a Category
column. (Note: multiple categories are separated by a semi-colon. There is
also a script in the package that can split the Categories column into two
columns for First and Second category, if you want.) Some of the headings
have different names than in the standard Entourage export, but that
shouldn't matter. Or just change them in the first row in Excel. You can
get the scripts at

MacScripter.net <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>



--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Jammer Six]

€ > Is there a way to do this?

There is, then, no way that you're aware of to do this in Word?

 

[Elliott Roper]

€ > Is there a way to do this?

There is, then, no way that you're aware of to do this in Word?

Of course there is. It is simply convenient to keep your data in Excel.

In your Word merge doc you need a mergefield like:-

{IF {MERGEFIELD married} = "y" and "{ MERGEFIELD spouse_name} }

In the excel sheet you have a column called married with a y in the
rows you want, and of course a column of spouse_name.

Note, I have not tested this. It is ages since I prepared my mailing
lists like this, and I might have messed up some of the IF syntax
making a simpler example for here.

It is possible to get carried away by this stuff, for example, the
exact text of my salution line, including the mergefield is
Dear { IF {MERGEFIELD surname } <> "" "{ IF MERGEFIELD nice } = "y" "{
MERGEFIELD first_name }" "{ MERGEFIELD title } { MERGEFIELD surname }"
}" "Sir/Madam" },
(That's all on one line of course)
You can easily guess what the Excel comun headings are, and what's in
them.

 

[Phillip M. Jones, CE.T.]

I need to write a form letter to a group of people, some of whom have
spouses and some of whom don't.

What I would like would be for the letter to determine if there's a
spouse involved, and if there is, address them correctly.

For instance, if Joe isn't married, I'd like the letter to go to Joe
Smith, and if he is married, I'd like it to go to Joe & Jane Smith.

However, the fields available in the data merge manager don't appear to
include any reference to the spouse field.

I've tried exporting the data to Excel, but when I do that, Entourage
doesn't export categories, so I would have to pick through the list by
hand.

Is there a way to do this?

Thanks!

just have name of person and significant other.

That way it would apply to a man and his, wife, Girlfriend, female
partner, or Male partner, or woman and her husband, boyfriend, or female
partner.

It aples to anyone regardless of gender and living arangements.

--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |MEMBER:VPEA (LIFE) ETA-I, NESDA,ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112-1809 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://home.kimbanet.com/~pjones/birthday/index.htm>
<http://vpea.exis.net>

 

[Jammer Six]

€ Of course there is. It is simply convenient to keep your data in Excel.

I see. Thanks.

There's no way without exporting to Excel?

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

€ Of course there is. It is simply convenient to keep your data in Excel.

I see. Thanks.

There's no way without exporting to Excel?

You're not actually interested in a solution, right? You've been offered two
solutions already, but I get the feeling you don't like them?

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Jammer Six]

€ You're not actually interested in a solution, right? You've been offered two
€ solutions already, but I get the feeling you don't like them?

That's an interesting conclusion.

What I'm trying to avoid is the export.

I handle a lot of data, and don't like to handle it more often than I
have to. Every time one of my people touches it, errors start to
propagate.

You don't have a solution to offer that fits my requirements, do you?

Do you have something more than appreciation wrapped up in this?

 

[Gene van Troyer]

You don't have a solution to offer that fits my requirements, do you?

Apparently not.

Do you have something more than appreciation wrapped up in this?

Apparently grief.

Perhaps you need to write to Microsoft with a suggestion that it add your
desired feature to the Word address database.

Gene van Troyer