header/footer merge field problem

[Clem]

I've designed a Word doc with merge fields in tables in the header, footer,
and body. My data source is text in .csv format. The header and footer
fields are unique, but the body table repeats the same fields in each row,
using <<NEXT RECORD>> in the first column. After much frustration, I found
the only way I can get my merge to populate the header/footer fields is to
include their data in each row of the data source file. Now my testing has
revealed another problem: If the body table contains more rows than the
data source, the header and footer fields aren't populated by the merge.
They just end up blank. I can't predict the number of rows my data source
will contain for different runs, but of course I need to guarantee the
header and footer fields will populate regardless of number of rows in the
data source. If there's anything on this topic in the FAQs or this
newsgroup, I haven't found it. I'm using Word 2003 on Win XP. Can anyone
offer a quick solution, or do I need to learn VB, or maybe use a different
tool?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

See the "Multiple items per condition" item under the "Special merges"
section of fellow MVP CIndy Meister's website at
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/MergFram.htm


--
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

 

[Clem]

Doug,
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! Cindy's workaround #2 and
her reference to Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q105888 were sufficient to
solve my problem. It's not pretty, but it works!
Clem