BCM and Layout of an Address Book Entry

[Marty Hauville]

Greeting

I have been attempting to configure Office 2003 SBE using Business Contact Manager to allow staff to print address labels from Word with Comapny Name, Contact Name and Postal Address (a standard worldwide business mail address format); using "Envelopes and Labels in Word. Apparently the correct way to configure this (as it is not available "out of the box") is to save the appropriate macrobutton field codes as an AutoText entry "AddressLayout" - according to several sources

KB13490
http://www.slipstick.com/contacts/insword.ht
http://www.gmayor.com/Macrobutton.ht

The issue however, is that this does not seem to work on all BCM Contact entries. Sometimes I get the text "Fax Number" where the Company Name should be. Sometimes there is no Company Name whatsoever. Sometimes it works flawlessly. It does not work at all if I use BCM Accounts entries

I have imported contacts from previous Office 97 Contacts, created new contacts, imported contacts from Excel and what-have-you. It seems that there is a bug with the AutoText entry "AddressLayout" method of creating standard company address labels with BCM and is dependant on how the contact was created - a la KB164477. Is this likely the case

I would like to know what the appropriate macrobutton field codes are for BCM (if in fact they are different from normal Contacts) to allow the successful printing of Business Address Labels

Please help! Thank you

Regard
Marty Hauville

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I'd use a mail merge, not AddressLayout, to do bulk printing of mailing
labels.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

Greetings

I have been attempting to configure Office 2003 SBE using Business Contact

Manager to allow staff to print address labels from Word with Comapny Name,
Contact Name and Postal Address (a standard worldwide business mail address
format); using "Envelopes and Labels in Word. Apparently the correct way to
configure this (as it is not available "out of the box") is to save the
appropriate macrobutton field codes as an AutoText entry "AddressLayout" -
according to several sources:

KB134901
http://www.slipstick.com/contacts/insword.htm
http://www.gmayor.com/Macrobutton.htm

The issue however, is that this does not seem to work on all BCM Contact

entries. Sometimes I get the text "Fax Number" where the Company Name should
be. Sometimes there is no Company Name whatsoever. Sometimes it works
flawlessly. It does not work at all if I use BCM Accounts entries.

I have imported contacts from previous Office 97 Contacts, created new

contacts, imported contacts from Excel and what-have-you. It seems that
there is a bug with the AutoText entry "AddressLayout" method of creating
standard company address labels with BCM and is dependant on how the contact
was created - a la KB164477. Is this likely the case?

I would like to know what the appropriate macrobutton field codes are for

BCM (if in fact they are different from normal Contacts) to allow the
successful printing of Business Address Labels.

 

[Marty Hauville]

Su

Thanks for your swift response as always

Sorry for the misunderstanding, these are for ad-hoc Company adressing, not a mass-mail out. Users need to print address labels (Single label with Comapny logo) as and when needed for sending invoices, usually five to ten per day each. Typically we use Word, (Tools, Letters & Mailings, Address & Labels) to print to sticky labels one at a time from the Address Book, which is linked to BCM Contacts

Are we using the correct method to print an address label with Contact Name, Company, Postal Address? Is there a better way? Do my previous assumptions/questions still stand?

Thank you in advance for your assistance

Regard
Marty Hauvill

----- Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] wrote: ----

I'd use a mail merge, not AddressLayout, to do bulk printing of mailin
labels

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MV
Author o
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart fo
Administrators, Power Users, and Developer
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.asp

Greeting

Manager to allow staff to print address labels from Word with Comapny Name
Contact Name and Postal Address (a standard worldwide business mail addres
format); using "Envelopes and Labels in Word. Apparently the correct way t
configure this (as it is not available "out of the box") is to save th
appropriate macrobutton field codes as an AutoText entry "AddressLayout"
according to several sourcesentries. Sometimes I get the text "Fax Number" where the Company Name shoul
be. Sometimes there is no Company Name whatsoever. Sometimes it work
flawlessly. It does not work at all if I use BCM Accounts entriescontacts, imported contacts from Excel and what-have-you. It seems tha
there is a bug with the AutoText entry "AddressLayout" method of creatin
standard company address labels with BCM and is dependant on how the contac
was created - a la KB164477. Is this likely the caseBCM (if in fact they are different from normal Contacts) to allow th
successful printing of Business Address Labels

 

[Marty Hauville]

Su

BTW I tried using the Mail Merge funtion and it fails to include any Address, no matter which merge fields from BCM contacts I select. It will only include Name and Company (only name when I use <<address block>>!) Even if it worked woth BCM, the Mail Merge function would not be suitable for users wanting to print one or two lables/envelopes (as in our case), as it is difficult and convoluted to use for such a purpose. Any hints please

Thank you

Regard
Marty Hauville

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Mail merge works best when started from Outlook. I'll play around with the
Insert Address function. In the meantime, you might want to look at some of
the other label solutions -- see
http://www.slipstick.com/contacts/printlabel.htm

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

Sue

BTW I tried using the Mail Merge funtion and it fails to include any

Address, no matter which merge fields from BCM contacts I select. It will
only include Name and Company (only name when I use <<address block>>!) Even
if it worked woth BCM, the Mail Merge function would not be suitable for
users wanting to print one or two lables/envelopes (as in our case), as it
is difficult and convoluted to use for such a purpose. Any hints please!

 

[Marty Hauville]

ISSUE UPDATE
Removed old BCM contacts and BCM account list entries from Address Book by removing and re-adding Address Book from Profile. This had the desirable effect of eliminating the prior quirky illogical behaviour of the database merge fields. Now the situation seems to be static and I found the following results as follows

Mail Merge from BCM Accounts
* All fields merge accurately except Primary Contact Name is unavailabl
* How filter out local Country field
* <<First Name>> and <<Last Name>> seem to split <<Account>> BCM Accounts Database Field and perform a dodgy truncation of the Account Fiel

Address & Envelopes from BCM Accounts
* Successfully filters out local Country fiel
* Primary Contact Name is unavailabl

Mail Merge from BCM Contacts
* <<Address Block>> does not merge Contact Nam
* <<Address Block>> filters out all Country fields, when suppress local Country field selected
* <<First Name>> and <<Last Name>> seem to split <<Account>> BCM Contacts Database Field and perform a dodgy truncation of the Account Fiel

Address & Envelopes from BCM Contacts
* Works fine, but you have to remember the exact name of the person to print an envelope/label to a company. How do we search for or view Company Name in Address Book? Can we print Envelope/Label from BCM, as it is easy to use Simple Find to search for company names

I think I might try and write a VBA tool button to initiate Word Envelopes & Labels from BCM Contacts or Accounts, so that it prints the correct fields (unless it has already been done)... so I have ordered the following books from Amazon

"Beginning Programming for Dummies" by Wallace Wang (been too long since I wrote BASIC on my Vic-20
"VBA for Dummies" by John Paul Muelle
"Mastering VBA 6" by Guy Hart-Davi
"Microsoft Outlook Programming, Jumpstart for Administrators, Developers, and Power Users" by Sue Mosher ;
"Programming Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange 2003, Third Edition" by Thomas Rizz

I already have Patricia Cardoza's "Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 - Special Edition" from Que, which contains some very useful information on BCM, although not quite enough! Is there more BCM info/books out there? I also require info on writing VBA for data import to BCM (from an email/Public Folder to BCM Opportunity). Also info on Merge Fields for BCM would be fantastic - what they do and what objects/data fields they link to. Do any of these books above provide this info or please can you recommend any other books or information sources?

Again thankyou for your effort and time in answering these questions. Very much appreciated. If it weren't for you MVP's I don’t quite know what I'd do, thank you

Regard
Marty Hauville

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

When you're setting up the merge document, are you looking at the Address
Fields list or the Database Fields list? Any BCM custom fields, like
Primary_Contact, will appear only on the Database list.

The address book that you see in Word can't be customized to show company
names. It's a long-standing complaint.

For programming purposes, you can treat the BCM entries as regular Outlook
items with custom fields. The "user-defined fields list in folder" list in
the Field Chooser will give you the names of at least the most useful custom
fields.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

ISSUE UPDATE:
Removed old BCM contacts and BCM account list entries from Address Book by

removing and re-adding Address Book from Profile. This had the desirable
effect of eliminating the prior quirky illogical behaviour of the database
merge fields. Now the situation seems to be static and I found the following
results as follows:

Mail Merge from BCM Accounts:
* All fields merge accurately except Primary Contact Name is unavailable
* How filter out local Country field?
* <<First Name>> and <<Last Name>> seem to split <<Account>> BCM Accounts

Database Field and perform a dodgy truncation of the Account Field

Address & Envelopes from BCM Accounts:
* Successfully filters out local Country field
* Primary Contact Name is unavailable

Mail Merge from BCM Contacts:
* <<Address Block>> does not merge Contact Name
* <<Address Block>> filters out all Country fields, when suppress local Country field selected!
* <<First Name>> and <<Last Name>> seem to split <<Account>> BCM Contacts

Database Field and perform a dodgy truncation of the Account Field

Address & Envelopes from BCM Contacts:
* Works fine, but you have to remember the exact name of the person to

print an envelope/label to a company. How do we search for or view Company
Name in Address Book? Can we print Envelope/Label from BCM, as it is easy to
use Simple Find to search for company names?

I think I might try and write a VBA tool button to initiate Word Envelopes

& Labels from BCM Contacts or Accounts, so that it prints the correct fields
(unless it has already been done)... so I have ordered the following books
from Amazon:

"Beginning Programming for Dummies" by Wallace Wang (been too long since I wrote BASIC on my Vic-20)
"VBA for Dummies" by John Paul Mueller
"Mastering VBA 6" by Guy Hart-Davis
"Microsoft Outlook Programming, Jumpstart for Administrators, Developers,

and Power Users" by Sue Mosher ; )

"Programming Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange 2003, Third Edition" by Thomas Rizzo

I already have Patricia Cardoza's "Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 -

Special Edition" from Que, which contains some very useful information on
BCM, although not quite enough! Is there more BCM info/books out there? I
also require info on writing VBA for data import to BCM (from an
email/Public Folder to BCM Opportunity). Also info on Merge Fields for BCM
would be fantastic - what they do and what objects/data fields they link to.
Do any of these books above provide this info or please can you recommend
any other books or information sources?

Again thankyou for your effort and time in answering these questions. Very

much appreciated. If it weren't for you MVP's I don't quite know what I'd
do, thank you!