Can I e-mail a mail merge document?

[TedRusky]

If I e-mail a word document that I have created with merge fields (Office
2002, Windows Xp Pro) will the recipient of the e-mail be able to toggle
through the merged fields as well?

Another way of phrasing this quesiton is whether mail merge saves the merge
information as part of the document or if mail merge is directing the SQL
command to a source (i.e. database or Excel file).

 

[Peter Jamieson]

If you send the mail merge /main document/ as an attachment to your e-mail,
then your recipient should be able to open it.

If they have a mail merge data source that has exactly the same pathname as
yours, they /may/ be able to open their document with few problems, and when
they preview or merge, they will see /their/ data. if you selected/rejected
individual records in "Mail Merge Recipients", that might have an impact on
what they saw - I do not know, but I suggest you don't rely on any such
selections/rejections.

However, Word may not be able to open that data source, even if it has
exactly the same name and path. If not, it will prompt for a new data
source, and then you have lost control.

Peter Jamieson

 

[TedRusky]

Thank you for taking the time to respond. If I understand correctly, the
main document saves the merge fields but the data itself is not saved. The
recipient will need to have access to the data source as well.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

You probably got it. But just to clarify, in case...

The mail merge main document does contain information about the data source,
and it also tries to remember which record you were previewing in the data
source when you saved the document. But that information is essentially to
do with the data source that /your/ machine sees. If, for example, it is an
Access database at c:\mydbs\mydb.mdb, when they open the document, Word will
try to connect to \their\ c:mydbs\mydb.mdb, which might be a completely
different database with different tables, fields and data. So...

The
recipient will need to have access to the data source as well.

The recipient needs access to the data source that they need to complete the
merge. If every recipient needs the same data, you either have to provide
access to the same central data, or you have to provide copies of the same
data to each recipient. If the point is that each recipient is using the
same data structures (same tables etc.) but has dffierent data in their
local database, all you really need to be concerned about is that the merge
document either works when each recipient opens it, or that each recipient
knows how to connect the document to their own local data.

Peter Jamieson

 

[TedRusky]

Thank you!

You probably got it. But just to clarify, in case...

The mail merge main document does contain information about the data source,
and it also tries to remember which record you were previewing in the data
source when you saved the document. But that information is essentially to
do with the data source that /your/ machine sees. If, for example, it is an
Access database at c:\mydbs\mydb.mdb, when they open the document, Word will
try to connect to \their\ c:mydbs\mydb.mdb, which might be a completely
different database with different tables, fields and data. So...


The recipient needs access to the data source that they need to complete the
merge. If every recipient needs the same data, you either have to provide
access to the same central data, or you have to provide copies of the same
data to each recipient. If the point is that each recipient is using the
same data structures (same tables etc.) but has dffierent data in their
local database, all you really need to be concerned about is that the merge
document either works when each recipient opens it, or that each recipient
knows how to connect the document to their own local data.

Peter Jamieson