Bookmarks are not retained during Mail Merge

[Latha]

Hi

I wanted to know if its possible to retain the bookmarks
during Mail Merge. If so how??

Regards
Latha

 

[Guest]

While browsing other items in NewsGroups, I found Bae
trying to do similar thing (Carry over bookmarks from main
document to the merged document); Doug Robbins replied Bae
that if the data source is Access, whole thing can be done
with an Access report. I am using Excel spreadsheet as
data source and performing mail merge in Word 2000.

Thanks in advance

Regards
Latha

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

As the name of each bookmark in a document must be unique, they are not
retained when you create multiple copies in the document as you do when you
execute a mailmerge.

Tell us what the purpose of the bookmarks is and we may be able to tell you
how to do whatever it is in another way.

--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply Doug. I wanted to carry over the
bookmarks from main document to the merged document; The
merged document should contain the same bookmarks from the
main document. This main document is a template and any
merged document should resemble main document.

I am using Excel spreadsheet as data source and performing
mail merge in Word 2000.

I tried macro code to replace bookmark field with
placeholder in the main document, perform mail merge
(close main document without saving any changes), then in
the merged document replace placeholders with the
bookmark; that worked but the problem is placeholders
exists in the sense any attempts to delete placeholder is
deleting the bookmark.

Please advise. Many thanks in advance.

Regards
Latha

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

But what is the purpose of the bookmarks?

--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
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Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Latha]

Sorry for not answering your question before, Doug. The
purpose of the bookmarks is to keep the links from the
main document. Hope I am clear, if not please let me know.

Regards
Latha

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Sorry, that does not mean much. What is the purpose of the links?

--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Latha]

Doug

Let me try to explain bit more.

For example, I have a bookmark called bookmark1 which
takes to section 4.1 of the main document and another
bookmark I have was, say bookmark2 which takes to section
1 highlighting the entire text under section 1; And these
needs to be carried to the merged document.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Latha

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

If you run the following macro when the mailmerge main document is active,
it will execute the merge to a new document, split that new document into
individual documents with each document corresponding to a record in the
datasource and then it will recreate the bookmarks that were in the main
document in each of those documents and save and close them with a filename
"Letter#" where # is a sequential number:

' Throwaway Macro created by Doug Robbins to "preserve" bookmarks during a
mailmerge
'
Dim abm As Bookmark, bmrange As Range, i As Long, Result As Document, j As
Long, k As Long
Dim Target As Document, Letter As Range, source As Document
Set source = ActiveDocument
i = 1
For Each abm In ActiveDocument.Range.Bookmarks
System.PrivateProfileString("c:\bookmarks.txt", "bookmarkNames",
"bookmark" & i) = abm.Name
abm.Range.InsertBefore "#"
abm.Range.InsertAfter "#"
i = i + 1
Next
With ActiveDocument.MailMerge
.Destination = wdSendToNewDocument
.Execute
End With
Set Result = ActiveDocument
For j = 1 To Result.Sections.Count - 1
Set Letter = Result.Sections(j).Range
Letter.End = Letter.End - 1
Set Target = Documents.Add
Target.Range = Letter
k = 1
Selection.HomeKey wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
Do While .Execute(FindText:="#*#", MatchWildcards:=True,
Wrap:=wdFindContinue, Forward:=True) = True
Set bmrange = Selection.Range
bmrange.Characters(bmrange.Characters.Count).Delete
bmrange.Characters(1).Delete
Target.Bookmarks.Add
System.PrivateProfileString("c:\bookmarks.txt", "bookmarkNames", "bookmark"
& k), bmrange
k = k + 1
Loop
End With
Target.SaveAs FileName:="Letter" & j
Target.Close
Next j
source.Activate
Selection.HomeKey wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
Do While .Execute(FindText:="#*#", MatchWildcards:=True,
Wrap:=wdFindContinue, Forward:=True) = True
Set bmrange = Selection.Range
bmrange.Characters(bmrange.Characters.Count).Delete
bmrange.Characters(1).Delete
Loop
End With

If your mailmerge maindocument happens to include "#" in it, replace that
character wherever it appears in the above code with some other character
that does not appear in the document.
--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Latha]

Thanks for the code Doug.

While running the macro from main document, message
saying "Word has insufficient memory. You will not be able
to undo this action once it is completed. Do you want to
continue?" appeared twice. I hit Yes. All that's happend
was (1) '#' was inserted before and after the bookmark
range in the main document (2) bookmarks.txt created in C
directory (3) merged document created without any
bookmarks (I couldn't see any # reference in there)

Your help much appreciated.

Regards
Latha

-----Original Message-----
If you run the following macro when the mailmerge main document is active,
it will execute the merge to a new document, split that new document into
individual documents with each document corresponding to a record in the
datasource and then it will recreate the bookmarks that were in the main
document in each of those documents and save and close them with a filename
"Letter#" where # is a sequential number:

' Throwaway Macro created by Doug Robbins to "preserve" bookmarks during a
mailmerge
'
Dim abm As Bookmark, bmrange As Range, i As Long, Result As Document, j As
Long, k As Long
Dim Target As Document, Letter As Range, source As Document
Set source = ActiveDocument
i = 1
For Each abm In ActiveDocument.Range.Bookmarks
System.PrivateProfileString

("c:\bookmarks.txt", "bookmarkNames",

"bookmark" & i) = abm.Name
abm.Range.InsertBefore "#"
abm.Range.InsertAfter "#"
i = i + 1
Next
With ActiveDocument.MailMerge
.Destination = wdSendToNewDocument
.Execute
End With
Set Result = ActiveDocument
For j = 1 To Result.Sections.Count - 1
Set Letter = Result.Sections(j).Range
Letter.End = Letter.End - 1
Set Target = Documents.Add
Target.Range = Letter
k = 1
Selection.HomeKey wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
Do While .Execute(FindText:="#*#", MatchWildcards:=True,
Wrap:=wdFindContinue, Forward:=True) = True
Set bmrange = Selection.Range
bmrange.Characters (bmrange.Characters.Count).Delete
bmrange.Characters(1).Delete
Target.Bookmarks.Add
System.PrivateProfileString

("c:\bookmarks.txt", "bookmarkNames", "bookmark"

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

The code worked here. When if finishes running, there should be no # to be
seen as the final thing that it does is delete the #'s that it inserts into
the mailmerge main document. Did you look in your default document location
for a whole lot of files with the filename Letter#.doc? They will be the
ones with the bookmarks in them.

--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Latha]

Doug,

I could see only 3 files with names Letter1.doc,
Letter2.doc and Letter3.doc. These documents seems to
contain bookmark text. A merged document by name Form
Letters... was created without bookmarks.

Also coming up with an error "Compile Error Expected: ="
at , in '), bmrange' macro
code 'System.PrivateProfileString
("c:\bookmarks.txt", "bookmarkNames", "bookmark" & k),
bmrange
'. I did change the code to have := and ran the macro.

Regards
Latha

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

The following commands

System.PrivateProfileString("c:\bookmarks.txt", "bookmarkNames",
"bookmark" & i) = abm.Name

and

Target.Bookmarks.Add
System.PrivateProfileString("c:\bookmarks.txt", "bookmarkNames", "bookmark"
& k), bmrange

should all be on one line. I assume that it is the second that is causing
the problem. Place the cursor after the second d in Add and press delete to
remove the line break inserted by the email program.

The multi-section document create by the mailmerge will not contain any
bookmarks. The macro splits that document into a separate document for each
record in the datasource and then uses and Edit>Find routine to insert
bookmarks in that document at the location of the # markers which it inserts
into the mailmerge main document. After creating each of those documents,
it saves and closes them. Then finally, it goes back to the mailmerge main
document and deletes the # markers that it inserted into it. At that point,
the mailmerge main document should be the active document. The multisection
document that was created as a result of the mailmerge will still be open
and in each Section of it, the location where the bookmarks inserted into
the mailmerge main document will be identified by the # markers. There will
however be no bookmarks in that document as in that it contains numerous
facsimiles of the mailmerge main document, it cannot contain the bookmarks
as they must be unique.
--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Latha]

Doug

My requirement is for the multi-section document created
by the mailmerge to retain the macros (not just the #s
where the bookmarks are inserted) contained in the main
document. Is it possible or not?? My understanding from
your mail is it is not possible. Is there a way to replace
#s with bookmark text??

Thanks in advance

Latha

-----Original Message-----
The following commands

System.PrivateProfileString

("c:\bookmarks.txt", "bookmarkNames",

"bookmark" & i) = abm.Name

and

Target.Bookmarks.Add
System.PrivateProfileString

("c:\bookmarks.txt", "bookmarkNames", "bookmark"

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

The macro that I gave you in my post of 31 May does insert bookmarks in each
document produced by the splitting the result of executing the mailmerge
that match the bookmarks that were in the mailmerge main document.

Now when you start talking about macros, that is something completely
different and leads me to believe that you are attempting to execute a
mailmerge with a main document that contains formfields as are used in a
document protected for formfields.

You may recall that I asked the purpose of the bookmarks and you never
really provided the answer to that.

Basically, a formfield document and the mailmerge utility are not
compatible. It may not however be correct to say that it is impossible to
re-create formfields and macros in the documents split out of the mailmerge,
but if you do, you are going to run into security issues if you start
distributing the documents and resulting problems when the recipients either
have their macro security level set to high, or choose not the trust (and
hence disable) the macros in the document when they receive the macro
security warning if they have the security level set to medium.

--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Also take a look at http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=211308

--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Latha]

Doug

I am very sorry for the confusion caused by me. My last
question posted should be "My requirement is for the multi-
section document created by the mailmerge to retain the
bookmarks (not just the #s where the bookmarks are
inserted) contained in the main document. Is it possible
or not??" I really confused you by saying 'macros' instead
of 'bookmarks'. the macro you posted is doing a great job
but what I need is, for the bookmarks to be in a multi-
section document not in separate documents. The documents
(Letter....doc) have only bookmarks in them but doesn't
look like a merged document.

I thought the answer provided on 30th May for the 'purpose
of the bookmarks' explains. Some of the bookmarks are like
an easy way of Search - Find. For example bookmark
Requirements takes to the Requirements section of the
document. Hope this explains.

Regards
Latha

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

As each bookmark in a document must have a unique name, it is not possible
to have bookmarks with the same name in each section of the multisection
document.

Why do you need the bookmarks??????????

If you will tell us the real reason for wanting them, we may be able to
suggest another method of achieving that objective.

IT CANNOT BE DONE WITH BOOKMARKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Latha]

Doug, thank you very much for your patience.

Below is the explanation about the purpose of the
bookmarks from the actual person who created the main
document (tempalte)

This Word document is in reality a template that is used
each time to create a final version. The hyperlinks placed
within the document were designed to provide easy
navigation back and forth throughout the document. For
instance a hyperlink within a clause on page 3 might refer
to another clause within the document on page 17. The
reader could simply click on the link and be taken to the
correct area on page 17. Then using another link within
the clause on page 17 they would be taken back to page 3.
Then they could continue to read the document from page 3.

It has become obvious that 'manually created' hyperlinks
link to specific bookmarks. But these bookmarks do not
survive the standard mail merge process. However the
actual hyperlink field code does survive intact. The
problem is that it now points to a non-existent
reference.

However we have discovered that a macro command to create
a table of contents does survive the mail merge. When it
is activated it creates the table of contents and
hyperlinks linked to hidden bookmarks i.e. Toc 74385131.
These newly created 'hidden bookmarks' point to any text
with a heading style.

So it might be possible to change the existing hyperlinks
to refer to bookmarks that will only exist once the 'table
of contents' macro is activated after the mail merge.

Hope this explains better.

Regards and thanks in advance
Latha

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

The following might do what you want:

' Throwaway Macro created by Doug Robbins to "preserve" hyperlinks to
bookmarks during a MailMerge
'
Dim abm As Bookmark, bmrange As Range, i As Long, Result As Document, j As
Long, k As Long, linkrange As Range, linktarget As String
Dim source As Document
Set source = ActiveDocument
i = 1
For j = 1 To source.MailMerge.DataSource.RecordCount
For Each abm In ActiveDocument.Range.Bookmarks
System.PrivateProfileString("c:\bookmarks.txt", "bookmarkNames",
"bookmark" & i) = abm.Name & Format(j)
i = i + 1
Next
Next j
For Each abm In ActiveDocument.Range.Bookmarks
abm.Range.InsertBefore "#"
abm.Range.InsertAfter "#"
Next
With ActiveDocument.MailMerge
.Destination = wdSendToNewDocument
.Execute
End With
Set Result = ActiveDocument
k = 1
Selection.HomeKey wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
Do While .Execute(FindText:="#*#", MatchWildcards:=True,
Wrap:=wdFindContinue, Forward:=True) = True
Set bmrange = Selection.Range
bmrange.Characters(bmrange.Characters.Count).Delete
bmrange.Characters(1).Delete
Result.Bookmarks.Add System.PrivateProfileString("c:\bookmarks.txt",
"bookmarkNames", "bookmark" & k), bmrange
k = k + 1
Loop
End With
For i = 1 To Result.Hyperlinks.Count
linktarget = Result.Hyperlinks(i).SubAddress
Set linkrange = Result.Hyperlinks(i).Range
linkrange.Select
linktarget = linktarget &
Format(Selection.Information(wdActiveEndSectionNumber))
Result.Hyperlinks.Add Result.Hyperlinks(i).Range, "", linktarget
Next i

source.Activate
Selection.HomeKey wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
Do While .Execute(FindText:="#*#", MatchWildcards:=True,
Wrap:=wdFindContinue, Forward:=True) = True
Set bmrange = Selection.Range
bmrange.Characters(bmrange.Characters.Count).Delete
bmrange.Characters(1).Delete
Loop
End With


--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP