data merge and SET field command

[ATSFSS2008]

I have to maintain 30 different Word documents that contain in various names
and phone numbers of contacts personnel (a single document may reference the
same person's name multiple times). Currently when a contact name changes I
have to try and remember which Word documents need to be updated, as well as
where and how many times within the documents the change needs to be made.
Done manually, it's nearly impossible to make the changes with 100%
conistency, so I'm looking for a better way.

My understanding is that I can create a data file with the names and phone
numbers of all the people I have to keep current, and then data merge or
bookmark them (or something, I don't really understand) to places in the Word
documents where they need to be updated.

The following is a quote from the Word Help files, but I don't understand
what it's telling me to do.
"SET (Set Bookmark) fields allow you to assign text, a number, or other
information to a bookmark. You can use the information multiple times in the
resulting merged documents. If the information changes, then you can edit the
SET field once rather than searching through the main document and changing
each occurrence."

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I think that what I would do is store the names and phone numbers in an
Excel Spreadsheet and then select the required information in Excel, Copy it
to the Clipboard (Ctrl+C), then in Word, with the selection where you want
the information to appear, do a Paste Special, select Unformatted Text,
click on the Paste link radio button and then click on OK.

If you toggle on the field codes in your Word document (Alt+F9) you will
then see a field like

{ LINK Excel Sheet 8 "Workbook Path\FileName" "WorksheetTabName!RowCell" \a
\t }

Those fields can be copied to the other places in the document where you
want the same text to appear or you can go throught the process again.

There is a setting under Options in Word for such links to be automatically
updated when a document is opened, so if you were to make changes to the
source data in Excel, those changes would be reflected in the document the
next time that you open it.

You probably should be using Templates in Word for this purpose, rather than
documents.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP