alphabetized mailmerge with MSWord

[Burt]

I am using Office 2000 on a PC with WinXP Home. I'm a newbie and am using
it essentially as a flatfile for name, address, phone#, etc. Although I
have alphabetized the Access name list in the form view and also in the
table view, when I either export it to Excel or use it as the data source
for a Word mailmerge the output is not alphabetized. I suspect that it
might be in the order of data entry. What have I left out that reorders the
data for export the same as it appears in Access?

I have also used the prototype address list that comes with Access and
adapted it to a different mailing list, and it exports to an alphabetized
spreadsheet or or acts as a mailmerge source directly to produce an
alphabetized mailmerge doc.

 

[John Spencer]

USE a query when you export. With a query you can specify the order of
the records. A table has NO order - it is like a large bucket of water
where the atoms are in no particular order.

'====================================================
John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007
Center for Health Program Development and Management
University of Maryland Baltimore County
'====================================================

 

[Burt]

John - thanks for the quick reply. So---what I am seeing in the forms or
table view after alphabetizing is, I assume, the result of indexing that
doesn't affect exporting (as in the case of export to an excel spreadsheet)
or importing as a data sourse from MS Word for a merge. ??? If I use a
query, how does that affect the table's use as a data source for the mail
merge?

 

[Albert D. Kallal]

John - thanks for the quick reply. So---what I am seeing in the forms or
table view after alphabetizing is, I assume, the result of indexing that
doesn't affect exporting (as in the case of export to an excel
spreadsheet) or importing as a data sourse from MS Word for a merge. ???
If I use a query, how does that affect the table's use as a data source
for the mail merge?

It doesn't affect the order in the table, but it does allow you to order the
data as you please. It's probably worth mentioning at this point in time
that data in an access database actually has no particular order, even when
you put an index on it.

If you enter ten names into a access database, and then go back and edit
several of the names, it's very possible that the physical order of the
names will change. I repeat, there is no particular physical order that you
can rely on in MS access.
If you want to see data in a particular order, then you use a query and set
the sort order in that query. This is the only reasonable way in which you
can set your order of data in an access application. The physical order is
completely insignificant, nor can it be relized upon.

So when you have a combo box, a form, or exporting data, you simply use a
query and set the sort order in that query, and you'll never have to worry
about the actual water of the table (which cannot be relied upon as
mentioned anyway).

For report's in MS access, you simply click on the Sorting and grouping
button and use that.

Thus, as a general rule who you can't use and rely on the physical order,
but you can use the high speed high performance indexing that MS access has
to ensure that you get good performance when you do set the order.

 

[Burt]

Albert - Thanks for the info - Probably best for my situation to export the
table to an Excel spreadsheet, sort in the spreadsheed, and use the
spreadsheet as the data source for a mailmerge with Word.

Thanks to all,
Burt

 

[Dennis]

No, it's not. Write a QUERY and use the query as the data source for the
mail-merge. You are at least tripling your work by doing what you said above.
And for no reason.