how do i eliminate duplicates in word 2003 mail merge?

[Vicky]

how do i eliminate duplicates in word 2003 mail merge?

my data source looks like this:
last name, first name, carrier
doe, jane, Allianz
doe, jane, Sun Life
doe, jane, ING

and i would like mail merge to do this:
hello, {first name},
you are receiving this letter because you are contracted with:
1. {carrier}
2. "if first name and last name of the next record is the same as previous
record, list {carrier}"
3. "if first name and last name of the next record is the same as previous
record, list {carrier}"

is this possible in mail merge? if so, would someone explain how to do this
in mail merge?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Not easily. See the "Group Multiple
items for a single condition" item on fellow MVP Cindy Meister's website at

http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/mergfaq1.htm#DBPic


Or take a look at the following Knowledge Base Article (probably the same as
the one you have looked at)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;211303

or at

http://www.knowhow.com/Guides/CompoundMerges/CompoundMerge.htm



--
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

 

[Vicky]

The Knowledge Base Article was very helpful. If i change the function around,
i think can get the desired result but i may be a mailmerge novice and i
apologize, but how do i implement the function in mail merge?

i was trying to follow the example, and got as far as creating the data
source as stated in the example.

then here is where i get lost. do i copy the function directly and past it
on the main merge document? and if i merge to a new document, am i supposed
to be seeing the desired result? that's what i did, but i'm getting an error
"the mail merge cannot be completed because the document does not contain any
mail merge fields". isn't that mail merge fields already written into the
function that i just copied?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I am not sure that it is possible. Did you look at Cindy's article?

I would use a report in Access for this sort of thing.

--
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