How do I change a mail merge to a new document

[ADJS]

I am running XP and use 97 Office. I run alot of mailmerges and need to use a
data source for 4 different documents. How can I change to a new document
when the mail merge is running after printing one of the document.
I have tried using MailMerge Helper Change document without success.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

You should be able to attach the same daa source to several different
documents, and save and close each of those "Mail Merge Main Documents", one
at a time. Then you should be able to open those documents, one at a time,
and perform the merges. Whether you can open more than one at a time will
probably depend partly on the data source (I am not sure about this as far
as Word 97 is concerned) because of locking issues.

But I am not completely sure what you are actually trying to do. Can you go
through, step-by-step?

Peter Jamieson

 

[ADJS]

Hi We have numerous standard letters which are set up as mail merge letters.
When I open one of these and attach the relevant data source to it, after
printing that letter I am trying to change to the next letter required using
the same data source already opened. I have tried to do this using the mail
merge helper and going to 1) Main document - Create - Form Letters- Change
Document Type ....But then nothing else appears to happen. There is no
facility I can see to change the main document. What am I missing?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

OK, you aren't missing anything because Word just does not work the way you
are trying to. Using the out-of-the-box facilities, you can't keep the
existing data source open in a way that means it is used as the data source
for a new document you create.

I'm gueesing that what you're trying to do is have merge documents A.doc,
B.doc, C.doc etc. and attach them each day (say) to a new data source
(perhaps 0420.xls today, 0421.xls tomorrow, etc.

If so, it would be easier to attach a.doc, b.doc, c.doc to a single data
source, say Z.xls, then when you want to do your merges
a. close any mail merge main documents that might be open
b. delete or rename z.xls
c. copy today's data source to z.xls
d. do your merges.

You /might/ be able to do things the from within the mail merge manager by
a. creating a new blank document (say x.doc) and attaching it to today's
data source (say 0420.xls)
b. using insert|file to insert a.doc. I think (but have not checked) that
the document wil remain attached to 0420.xls
c. do the merge
d. delete the contents of x.doc
e. use insertfile to insert b.doc
f. do the merge
g. etc...

However, I think that is not likely to work well because of problems with
document layout, headers and footers, and so on.

Peter Jamieson

 

[ADJS]

The data source is an ongoing one for each month and added to daily, which
makes it quite large hence the reason for wanting to change the letter
without having to 're-load' the data for each doc. but as you say I am
trying to do something that is not available. I have obviously misunderstood
the terminology of that the facility thinking it would perform how I need it
to.
Thanks for your assistance.