Automating compilation for distribution

[Frank Wood]

I have a user with an interesting challenge. She takes board meeting minutes
and needs to easily distribute (or exclude) different parts of the meeting to
different people based on their relevance to the subject. But the final
document (which would be a compilation of the parts sent to each
person/group) would ultimately be merged into one document so it looks
professional. (I don’t want to send 4 different files to 1 person.) The
Meeting Minutes might begin looking like this:

VOTED: Blah blah etc.

VOTED: More Blah

VOTED: Even more Blah

Where the 1st and 3rd “Voted†should got to Person A, B and C, the 2nd and
3rd should go to Person D and E and All of them should go to Person F. The
resulting document would be customized to each group/person with additional
information typed. An introduction or whatever. She has a fairly large
number of these meetings per month that need to be distributed.

I originally thought about setting this up as some kind of mail merge but am
unsure how that might work with this scenario. I also considered setting
this up as a Master document with subdocuments, albeit, I’ve read so many
horror stories that this feature scares me and I’m also not sure it would
meet the needs.

Any suggestions are MOST welcome! Thanks in advance!

Frank Wood

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Frank:

Mail Merge is definitely the way to do this, you will get a perfect result
-- a single file containing only the bits you want for each user.

Master Documents are fine in .docx format, the horror stories all involve
the old .doc format, which was never strong enough to do master documents.

However, the master document approach would mean that you would have to
email all of the subdocuments to each user, and unless they handled them
correctly, it would refuse to open (you can't double-click a Master
Document, you have to save it as a folder, then open the correct Master
file).

So Mail Merge is your friend

Cheers

I have a user with an interesting challenge. She takes board meeting minutes
and needs to easily distribute (or exclude) different parts of the meeting to
different people based on their relevance to the subject. But the final
document (which would be a compilation of the parts sent to each
person/group) would ultimately be merged into one document so it looks
professional. (I don¹t want to send 4 different files to 1 person.) The
Meeting Minutes might begin looking like this:

VOTED: Blah blah etc.

VOTED: More Blah

VOTED: Even more Blah

Where the 1st and 3rd ³Voted² should got to Person A, B and C, the 2nd and
3rd should go to Person D and E and All of them should go to Person F. The
resulting document would be customized to each group/person with additional
information typed. An introduction or whatever. She has a fairly large
number of these meetings per month that need to be distributed.

I originally thought about setting this up as some kind of mail merge but am
unsure how that might work with this scenario. I also considered setting
this up as a Master document with subdocuments, albeit, I¹ve read so many
horror stories that this feature scares me and I¹m also not sure it would
meet the needs.

Any suggestions are MOST welcome! Thanks in advance!

Frank Wood

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Bearded]

Quite right

MailMerge is probably the way to go.

If your experience of Merge is confined to mailshot address merging [ie
from an Excel file or a data table / address list, it's slightly tricky
- planning and testing essential rather than jumping in. And of course
the whole Merge functionality seems to change with each new version of
Word on both platforms.

But there could be another "no brainer" way. Taking your example:

SAVE the minutes surrounding each VOTED item as separate docs, let's
call them voted1.doc, voted2.doc etc

CREATE a new doc, fullminuteABC.doc, which will go ONLY to those guys & gals

AT the relevant point in that doc, go to the Insert Menu, and do Insert
File... voted1.doc

REPEAT with voted3.doc

Then, create fullminuteDE.doc, and apply the same method

And so on and so forth.

This has a couple of advantages:

- the process is easy to understand and pass on to a colleague or
deputy – for example if she is absent - even, dare I say, to a manager
whose knowledge of Word is more limited than hers!

- reviewing / editing is simplified, because the sectional items are
standalone docs which can be passed on as required

HTH

Ken

 

[Frank Wood]

Thanks for the posts! Sorry for the delay in returning, I ccaught the
stomach bug. Ugh!


However, maybe I don't understand how mailmerge would significantly reduce
the manpower required. The "voted" sections need to be compiled differently
for each different group/distribution list and there are close to 30-50
different "voted" sections. Seems like creating a sub doc for each section
would be a major pain and not make it any easier than just taking the
original meeting minutes and deleting the parts that do "not apply" to create
a new document for each new group (also may be as large as 20-30 different
groups depending on the meeting).

Isn't there a way to tag each "voted" with hidden text/field that could be
used as a trigger? Then she could use Save as PDF for distribution somehow? I
was thinking of using something along these lines to make it as streamlined
as possible.

Am I missunderstanding your suggestions?

Frank Wood

Quite right

MailMerge is probably the way to go.

If your experience of Merge is confined to mailshot address merging [ie
from an Excel file or a data table / address list, it's slightly tricky
- planning and testing essential rather than jumping in. And of course
the whole Merge functionality seems to change with each new version of
Word on both platforms.

But there could be another "no brainer" way. Taking your example:

SAVE the minutes surrounding each VOTED item as separate docs, let's
call them voted1.doc, voted2.doc etc

CREATE a new doc, fullminuteABC.doc, which will go ONLY to those guys & gals

AT the relevant point in that doc, go to the Insert Menu, and do Insert
File... voted1.doc

REPEAT with voted3.doc

Then, create fullminuteDE.doc, and apply the same method

And so on and so forth.

This has a couple of advantages:

- the process is easy to understand and pass on to a colleague or
deputy – for example if she is absent - even, dare I say, to a manager
whose knowledge of Word is more limited than hers!

- reviewing / editing is simplified, because the sectional items are
standalone docs which can be passed on as required

HTH

Ken

Hi Frank:

Mail Merge is definitely the way to do this, you will get a perfect result
-- a single file containing only the bits you want for each user.

Master Documents are fine in .docx format, the horror stories all involve
the old .doc format, which was never strong enough to do master documents.

However, the master document approach would mean that you would have to
email all of the subdocuments to each user, and unless they handled them
correctly, it would refuse to open (you can't double-click a Master
Document, you have to save it as a folder, then open the correct Master
file).

So Mail Merge is your friend

Cheers

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Frank:

We're flying blind here because you still haven't told us which version of
Word your user has installed. Without that information, we simply can't be
specific.

But basically, you make up all of the Voted sections of the minutes as
separate documents in a folder somewhere.

You then make up an address list containing the Salutation, Honorific, First
Name, Last Name, email address and 30 columns for Voted 1 through Voted 30
for each recipient.

Then you insert IF statements into the Main Document, one for each of the
potential section documents: Voted 1 through Voted 30, say.

For each recipient, put a Y in the column for each Voted item they should
see.

To save a lot of work and potential for error, use an Excel formula to
automatically populate these fields based on a Selector column. Enter the
name of the mailing list into the Selector Column. Then populate the Voted
column based on that value.

For example, you might have a Matrix in the spreadsheet with a column named
"List". Then 30 columns with a Y or blank depending on whether members of
each of the lists is to see each item. The row for "Head Office Projects"
might get a Y in columns 13, 14 and 27.

Then the formula in the Address List column 13 would say "If the Selector
column = 'Head Office Projects' then "Y". Check the Excel help for the
HLOOKUP function

Now, in the Main Document, insert a Mergefield for each of the Voted Items.
Enclose each in an IF statement that populates an INCLUDETEXT field only if
the Voted column in the data source contains a "Y".

The first one would read { IF { MERGEFIELD Voted1 } = "Y" { INCLUDETEXT
I:\\Boilerplates\\Voted 1.doc } }

The second:

The first one would read { IF { MERGEFIELD Voted2 } = "Y" { INCLUDETEXT
I:\\Boilerplates\\Voted 2.doc } }

See:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MailMerge/MMergeIfFields.htm

And
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MailMerge/MMergeQueryOptions.htm

Then run a mail merge.

The result will be a series of documents, one for each addressee, each
containing only the inserted sections required by the list of which the
addressee is a member.

This will be easier to understand when you are not running to the bathroom
every ten minutes

Hope this helps

Thanks for the posts! Sorry for the delay in returning, I ccaught the
stomach bug. Ugh!


However, maybe I don't understand how mailmerge would significantly reduce
the manpower required. The "voted" sections need to be compiled differently
for each different group/distribution list and there are close to 30-50
different "voted" sections. Seems like creating a sub doc for each section
would be a major pain and not make it any easier than just taking the
original meeting minutes and deleting the parts that do "not apply" to create
a new document for each new group (also may be as large as 20-30 different
groups depending on the meeting).

Isn't there a way to tag each "voted" with hidden text/field that could be
used as a trigger? Then she could use Save as PDF for distribution somehow? I
was thinking of using something along these lines to make it as streamlined
as possible.

Am I missunderstanding your suggestions?

Frank Wood

Quite right

MailMerge is probably the way to go.

If your experience of Merge is confined to mailshot address merging [ie
from an Excel file or a data table / address list, it's slightly tricky
- planning and testing essential rather than jumping in. And of course
the whole Merge functionality seems to change with each new version of
Word on both platforms.

But there could be another "no brainer" way. Taking your example:

SAVE the minutes surrounding each VOTED item as separate docs, let's
call them voted1.doc, voted2.doc etc

CREATE a new doc, fullminuteABC.doc, which will go ONLY to those guys & gals

AT the relevant point in that doc, go to the Insert Menu, and do Insert
File... voted1.doc

REPEAT with voted3.doc

Then, create fullminuteDE.doc, and apply the same method

And so on and so forth.

This has a couple of advantages:

- the process is easy to understand and pass on to a colleague or
deputy ¡© for example if she is absent - even, dare I say, to a manager
whose knowledge of Word is more limited than hers!

- reviewing / editing is simplified, because the sectional items are
standalone docs which can be passed on as required

HTH

Ken

Hi Frank:

Mail Merge is definitely the way to do this, you will get a perfect result
-- a single file containing only the bits you want for each user.

Master Documents are fine in .docx format, the horror stories all involve
the old .doc format, which was never strong enough to do master documents.

However, the master document approach would mean that you would have to
email all of the subdocuments to each user, and unless they handled them
correctly, it would refuse to open (you can't double-click a Master
Document, you have to save it as a folder, then open the correct Master
file).

So Mail Merge is your friend

Cheers

On 16/01/09 3:13 AM, in article
(e-mail address removed), "Frank Wood"

I have a user with an interesting challenge. She takes board meeting
minutes
and needs to easily distribute (or exclude) different parts of the meeting
to
different people based on their relevance to the subject. But the final
document (which would be a compilation of the parts sent to each
person/group) would ultimately be merged into one document so it looks
professional. (I don©öt want to send 4 different files to 1 person.) The
Meeting Minutes might begin looking like this:

VOTED: Blah blah etc.

VOTED: More Blah

VOTED: Even more Blah

Where the 1st and 3rd ©øVoted©÷ should got to Person A, B and C, the 2nd and
3rd should go to Person D and E and All of them should go to Person F. The
resulting document would be customized to each group/person with additional
information typed. An introduction or whatever. She has a fairly large
number of these meetings per month that need to be distributed.

I originally thought about setting this up as some kind of mail merge but
am
unsure how that might work with this scenario. I also considered setting
this up as a Master document with subdocuments, albeit, I©öve read so many
horror stories that this feature scares me and I©öm also not sure it would
meet the needs.

Any suggestions are MOST welcome! Thanks in advance!

Frank Wood

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[FrankWood]

John,

AHA!!! Now I get what you guys meant regarding mailmerge. I had not
thought to use the Includetext combined with the If testing the contents of
the mergefield. Niiiice! I will take this and run with it.

Many many thanks!

Frank Wood

Hi Frank:

We're flying blind here because you still haven't told us which version of
Word your user has installed. Without that information, we simply can't be
specific.

But basically, you make up all of the Voted sections of the minutes as
separate documents in a folder somewhere.

You then make up an address list containing the Salutation, Honorific, First
Name, Last Name, email address and 30 columns for Voted 1 through Voted 30
for each recipient.

Then you insert IF statements into the Main Document, one for each of the
potential section documents: Voted 1 through Voted 30, say.

For each recipient, put a Y in the column for each Voted item they should
see.

To save a lot of work and potential for error, use an Excel formula to
automatically populate these fields based on a Selector column. Enter the
name of the mailing list into the Selector Column. Then populate the Voted
column based on that value.

For example, you might have a Matrix in the spreadsheet with a column named
"List". Then 30 columns with a Y or blank depending on whether members of
each of the lists is to see each item. The row for "Head Office Projects"
might get a Y in columns 13, 14 and 27.

Then the formula in the Address List column 13 would say "If the Selector
column = 'Head Office Projects' then "Y". Check the Excel help for the
HLOOKUP function

Now, in the Main Document, insert a Mergefield for each of the Voted Items.
Enclose each in an IF statement that populates an INCLUDETEXT field only if
the Voted column in the data source contains a "Y".

The first one would read { IF { MERGEFIELD Voted1 } = "Y" { INCLUDETEXT
I:\\Boilerplates\\Voted 1.doc } }

The second:

The first one would read { IF { MERGEFIELD Voted2 } = "Y" { INCLUDETEXT
I:\\Boilerplates\\Voted 2.doc } }

See:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MailMerge/MMergeIfFields.htm

And
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MailMerge/MMergeQueryOptions.htm

Then run a mail merge.

The result will be a series of documents, one for each addressee, each
containing only the inserted sections required by the list of which the
addressee is a member.

This will be easier to understand when you are not running to the bathroom
every ten minutes

Hope this helps

Thanks for the posts! Sorry for the delay in returning, I ccaught the
stomach bug. Ugh!


However, maybe I don't understand how mailmerge would significantly reduce
the manpower required. The "voted" sections need to be compiled differently
for each different group/distribution list and there are close to 30-50
different "voted" sections. Seems like creating a sub doc for each section
would be a major pain and not make it any easier than just taking the
original meeting minutes and deleting the parts that do "not apply" to create
a new document for each new group (also may be as large as 20-30 different
groups depending on the meeting).

Isn't there a way to tag each "voted" with hidden text/field that could be
used as a trigger? Then she could use Save as PDF for distribution somehow? I
was thinking of using something along these lines to make it as streamlined
as possible.

Am I missunderstanding your suggestions?

Frank Wood

Quite right

MailMerge is probably the way to go.

If your experience of Merge is confined to mailshot address merging [ie
from an Excel file or a data table / address list, it's slightly tricky
- planning and testing essential rather than jumping in. And of course
the whole Merge functionality seems to change with each new version of
Word on both platforms.

But there could be another "no brainer" way. Taking your example:

SAVE the minutes surrounding each VOTED item as separate docs, let's
call them voted1.doc, voted2.doc etc

CREATE a new doc, fullminuteABC.doc, which will go ONLY to those guys & gals

AT the relevant point in that doc, go to the Insert Menu, and do Insert
File... voted1.doc

REPEAT with voted3.doc

Then, create fullminuteDE.doc, and apply the same method

And so on and so forth.

This has a couple of advantages:

- the process is easy to understand and pass on to a colleague or
deputy ­ for example if she is absent - even, dare I say, to a manager
whose knowledge of Word is more limited than hers!

- reviewing / editing is simplified, because the sectional items are
standalone docs which can be passed on as required

HTH

Ken


On 2009-01-16 09:49:05 +0000, John McGhie <[email protected]> said:

Hi Frank:

Mail Merge is definitely the way to do this, you will get a perfect result
-- a single file containing only the bits you want for each user.

Master Documents are fine in .docx format, the horror stories all involve
the old .doc format, which was never strong enough to do master documents.

However, the master document approach would mean that you would have to
email all of the subdocuments to each user, and unless they handled them
correctly, it would refuse to open (you can't double-click a Master
Document, you have to save it as a folder, then open the correct Master
file).

So Mail Merge is your friend

Cheers

On 16/01/09 3:13 AM, in article
(e-mail address removed), "Frank Wood"

I have a user with an interesting challenge. She takes board meeting
minutes
and needs to easily distribute (or exclude) different parts of the meeting
to
different people based on their relevance to the subject. But the final
document (which would be a compilation of the parts sent to each
person/group) would ultimately be merged into one document so it looks
professional. (I don¹t want to send 4 different files to 1 person.) The
Meeting Minutes might begin looking like this:

VOTED: Blah blah etc.

VOTED: More Blah

VOTED: Even more Blah

Where the 1st and 3rd ³Voted² should got to Person A, B and C, the 2nd and
3rd should go to Person D and E and All of them should go to Person F. The
resulting document would be customized to each group/person with additional
information typed. An introduction or whatever. She has a fairly large
number of these meetings per month that need to be distributed.

I originally thought about setting this up as some kind of mail merge but
am
unsure how that might work with this scenario. I also considered setting
this up as a Master document with subdocuments, albeit, I¹ve read so many
horror stories that this feature scares me and I¹m also not sure it would
meet the needs.

Any suggestions are MOST welcome! Thanks in advance!

Frank Wood

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]