Beginner Address/Label Question

[Norm]

Trying to move completely to OS X. One of the remaining OS 9 apps is
Filemaker Pro 5 and that is now only used for some address book/mailing
labels once or twice a year.

Trying to figure out if there is an "easy" way to transfer that data to
another format and use with Office.

I'm not a heavy Word or Excel user and have not used either for a
creating mailing labels.

Can I import my Filemaker Pro addresses into a Word or Excel document
(or address book) and then use that maintaining one or more address
lists and for printing labels.

Appreciate any tips. Thanks.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Trying to move completely to OS X. One of the remaining OS 9 apps is
Filemaker Pro 5 and that is now only used for some address book/mailing
labels once or twice a year.

Trying to figure out if there is an "easy" way to transfer that data to
another format and use with Office.

I'm not a heavy Word or Excel user and have not used either for a
creating mailing labels.

Can I import my Filemaker Pro addresses into a Word or Excel document
(or address book) and then use that maintaining one or more address
lists and for printing labels.

Appreciate any tips. Thanks.

You can then use the Label Wizard in Word to pull data from either
FileMaker Pro (version 6 or previous) or an XL file. See "Create labels
by using the Data Merge Manager" in Word Help.

If your database is FMP version 7 or later, export the data in Excel
format.

 

[Norm]

I'm not a Word power user....closer to a beginner user. And a infrequent
Filemaker user.

Trying to move some address files off Filemaker Pro 5 so we don't have
to continue to use Classic.

Questions:

Can one "easily" maintain multiple address lists for mailing label
printing using MS Word (or Excel)?

If so, can I get my Filemaker Pro 5 address info into that recommended
form?

Thank you.

 

[Norm]

I don't have FM 5, but in 4.1 you can easily use File>Import/Export, output
the data as Tab Delimited Text or SYLK, & open the files directly into XL.
Save as XL files & use them as the record source for your merges to labels &
envelopes.

HTH |:>)

That does.

But a FU question for an XL beginner.

Is there an easy way (multiple family members will use one of these
address lists) to set up that XL file to be an address list that one can
add or edit?

Or am I better off trying to get the data into the Word address book?
Don't know if I can define multiple Word address books which would help
if that is the recommended approach.

Thanks for the help.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Norm -

I don't really use the Office Address Book much, so I will pass on that
one until I can check it out further or someone more knowledgeable on
the feature comes along.

As far as the XL file... either of the formats mentioned will result in
a list of records with Fied Names at the top of each column of data.
Anyone can simply click anywhere in the list, then go to Data>Form. New
records added using the form will be appended to the bottom of te list
& formatting will be automatically carried down for each record. The
Data Form also offers a number of other conveniences.

HTH |:>)

 

[Norm]

Hi Norm -

I don't really use the Office Address Book much, so I will pass on that
one until I can check it out further or someone more knowledgeable on
the feature comes along.

As far as the XL file... either of the formats mentioned will result in
a list of records with Fied Names at the top of each column of data.
Anyone can simply click anywhere in the list, then go to Data>Form. New
records added using the form will be appended to the bottom of te list
& formatting will be automatically carried down for each record. The
Data Form also offers a number of other conveniences.

Thanks much for the additional help.

I'll give it a try. And then a test with other users.

Appreciate.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I don't really use the Office Address Book much, so I will pass on that
one until I can check it out further or someone more knowledgeable on
the feature comes along.

For a file you want to share with other people, it's just as well to keep in
Excel.

There is an Office Address Book, which is stored in Entourage and Word can
use, but that's designed for all sorts of integration for the individual
user and it doesn't sound necessary in this situation, and would *not*
translate so well to other people. There's no point in setting it up unless
you want to use it to do more than you can with Excel--and about the only
feature I can think of would be automatically inserting address info into
letters you create one-by-one. For merges, Excel works just as well.

I think multiple address books, in particular, would be lots of trouble.

Daiya

 

[Norm]

For a file you want to share with other people, it's just as well to keep in
Excel.

There is an Office Address Book, which is stored in Entourage and Word can
use, but that's designed for all sorts of integration for the individual
user and it doesn't sound necessary in this situation, and would *not*
translate so well to other people. There's no point in setting it up unless
you want to use it to do more than you can with Excel--and about the only
feature I can think of would be automatically inserting address info into
letters you create one-by-one. For merges, Excel works just as well.

I think multiple address books, in particular, would be lots of trouble.

Daiya

OP back.

Thanks to all for this help for a relative MS Office beginner.

I'm trying to follow the tips suggested but so far I can't get an export
from FMP 5 to include headings.

Maybe I'm just suppose to export to a tab file, then open and save as an
Excel file, then add column titles, then add rows for additional
addresses and then use that file as a source for Merge into Word to
print labels. Do I have that anywhere close?

Thank you.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I'm trying to follow the tips suggested but so far I can't get an export
from FMP 5 to include headings.

Maybe I'm just suppose to export to a tab file, then open and save as an
Excel file, then add column titles, then add rows for additional
addresses and then use that file as a source for Merge into Word to
print labels. Do I have that anywhere close?

I've not done it, but it sounds like that would work great. Easy enough to
add your own headings in Excel.

I think, for the merge, you want the column titles to be in the very top
row.

Thank you.

Glad to help.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

I'm trying to follow the tips suggested but so far I can't get an export
from FMP 5 to include headings.

Maybe I'm just suppose to export to a tab file, then open and save as an
Excel file, then add column titles, then add rows for additional
addresses and then use that file as a source for Merge into Word to
print labels. Do I have that anywhere close?

Yes. You don't even have to save it as an excel file, you can keep it as a
tab-text file and open it in Excel to add columns, etc. It should work fine
with Word's Data merge if you then re-save it either as tab-text or .xls -
makes no difference. There are other things (like linking) possible if saved
as .xls, which you probably don't need, whereas saving as tab-text might
make it easier to get back into FMP if you need that.

--
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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[CyberTaz]

Hi Norm -

As indicated by the others, you are certainly on the right track!

I did go back into FM 4.1 & found that I may have misled you about the Field
Names, as they are _not_ included in the Export... Seems like there is no
provision for exporting them with the records unless that was added in a
later version