Advanced Word 2003 Mail Merge: Combining Records

J

jason

Hey all:

I've created a merge based somewhat on these instructions:
http://cornell.veplan.net/article.aspx?&a=3815
that allows me to group similar records to display on one page.

For example: I have two tables: Registrants and Guests. Registrants
contains a list of companies and the main attendee, while Guests
contains additional people attending. These tables are linked through
an ID field and I'm able to display all the guests for a given company
on one page in my merge document. One problem... when a company has
more than two additional guests I get a line break before each
additional guest. Below is a snippit of what the code looks like. In
this example the records are grouped on Company.

------------------------------------
{IF {MERGESEQ} = 1"

" "" }{SET Donor1 {MERGEFIELD Company }}
{ IF {Donor1} <> {Donor2}"

{MERGEFIELD Company}

Dear {MERGEFIELD FirstName},

Here are your guests:
{MERGEFIELD Guest1}
{MERGEFIELD Guest2}" "{MERGEFIELD Guest2}" }{SET Donor2 {MERGEFIELD
Company} }
____________________

Here's the weird part... If I put any characters, line breaks or page
breaks after the last } each additional Guest2 will have a line break
before it. If I make it the last line on a page, the list of Guests
appears in one block.

Any thoughts???
 
D

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

It would be easier to debug this if you included all of the field
constructions, inserting a ¶ (Alt+0182 on the numeric keypad) where you have
an enter or shift+enter in the field constructions.

--
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
 
J

jason

Here it is again. Thanks in advance for your help:

{IF {MERGESEQ} = 1"¶

" "" }{SET Donor1 {MERGEFIELD Company }}¶
{ IF {Donor1} <> {Donor2}"¶

{MERGEFIELD Company}¶

Dear {MERGEFIELD FirstName},¶

----------------------------------- PageBreak
-----------------------------------------
Here are your guests:¶
{MERGEFIELD Guest1}¶
{MERGEFIELD Guest2}" "{MERGEFIELD Guest2}" }{SET Donor2 {MERGEFIELD
Company} }¶

----------------------------------- PageBreak
-----------------------------------------

Note: Even if I remove the last ¶ and page break the additional Guest2
names have a line break before them.

Jason

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
P

Peter Jamieson

Isn't it because of the paragraph mark at the end of this line:

}{SET Donor1 {MERGEFIELD Company }}¶

?

Peter Jamieson
Here it is again. Thanks in advance for your help:

{IF {MERGESEQ} = 1"¶

" "" }{SET Donor1 {MERGEFIELD Company }}¶
{ IF {Donor1} <> {Donor2}"¶

{MERGEFIELD Company}¶

Dear {MERGEFIELD FirstName},¶

----------------------------------- PageBreak
-----------------------------------------
Here are your guests:¶
{MERGEFIELD Guest1}¶
{MERGEFIELD Guest2}" "{MERGEFIELD Guest2}" }{SET Donor2 {MERGEFIELD
Company} }¶

----------------------------------- PageBreak
-----------------------------------------

Note: Even if I remove the last ¶ and page break the additional Guest2
names have a line break before them.

Jason

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
J

jason

Unfortunately, no. I've tried many combinations of moving and removing
line breaks and page breaks to no avail.
Have any other suggestions or methods I can try?

Thanks, though, Peter.
 
P

Peter Jamieson

Unfortunately for the purposes of trying to find the problem, it works OK
here :)

Would it help you if I e-mailed you the incredibly simple test version and
data I have to see if it works OK at your end?

Which version of Word are you using?

Peter Jamieson

Unfortunately, no. I've tried many combinations of moving and removing
line breaks and page breaks to no avail.
Have any other suggestions or methods I can try?

Thanks, though, Peter.
 
D

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

Do you have a Guest1 and a Guest2 mergefield.

Looking at the website from where you got the field construction, the guest
names should all be in the one field.

Company Guest (Field Names)
Company1 GuestA (Record 1)
Company1 GuestB (Record 2)
Company1 GuestC (Record 3)
Company2 GuestA (Record 4)
Company2 GuestB (Record 5)
Company3 GuestA (Record 6)
Company3 GuestB (Record 7)

Also your field construction departs significantly from that in the article.



--
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

Here it is again. Thanks in advance for your help:

{IF {MERGESEQ} = 1"¶

" "" }{SET Donor1 {MERGEFIELD Company }}¶
{ IF {Donor1} <> {Donor2}"¶

{MERGEFIELD Company}¶

Dear {MERGEFIELD FirstName},¶

----------------------------------- PageBreak
-----------------------------------------
Here are your guests:¶
{MERGEFIELD Guest1}¶
{MERGEFIELD Guest2}" "{MERGEFIELD Guest2}" }{SET Donor2 {MERGEFIELD
Company} }¶

----------------------------------- PageBreak
-----------------------------------------

Note: Even if I remove the last ¶ and page break the additional Guest2
names have a line break before them.

Jason

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
J

jason

I do have both Guest1 and Guest2 fields.
on our registration table we have a place to add one guest (Guest1).
Only a select few companies can have more than one guest. This guest is
added to a separate table (guests) and is linked by a registration_id.
in that respect it follows the model below:

record 1: Company1 GuestA
record 2: Company1 GuestB
record 3: Company2 GuestA
record 4: Company2 GuestB
record 5: Company2 GuestC
record 6: Company3 GuestA
record 6: Company3 GuestB

My merge doc is based on a query that creates a list like above. Each
company is to receive a cover page and a second page with a list of all
their guests. Shouldn't the code i'm using work?

is there another way? Thanks
 
P

Peter Jamieson

Just out of interest, did you see my earlier post offering to send you the
..doc I have that seems to work OK?

I sometime wonder with the MS server...

Peter Jamieson
I do have both Guest1 and Guest2 fields.
on our registration table we have a place to add one guest (Guest1).
Only a select few companies can have more than one guest. This guest is
added to a separate table (guests) and is linked by a registration_id.
in that respect it follows the model below:

record 1: Company1 GuestA
record 2: Company1 GuestB
record 3: Company2 GuestA
record 4: Company2 GuestB
record 5: Company2 GuestC
record 6: Company3 GuestA
record 6: Company3 GuestB

My merge doc is based on a query that creates a list like above. Each
company is to receive a cover page and a second page with a list of all
their guests. Shouldn't the code i'm using work?

is there another way? Thanks
 
J

jason

I did Peter and thought I sent a message to you.

That would be extremely helpful. can you obtain my email from my
profile?
 
P

Peter Jamieson

<<
I did Peter and thought I sent a message to you.
Nothing arrived here but that's par for the course.

<<
That would be extremely helpful. can you obtain my email from my
profile?
just tried to mail you with attachments.

Peter Jamieson
I did Peter and thought I sent a message to you.

That would be extremely helpful. can you obtain my email from my
profile?
 

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