How to improve performance with mail merge for large docs

[Michael G]

Background: Master doc 11 x 17, double-sided with 240+
fields. MS Query to extract data from SQL Server db. Doc
also contains several text fields overlayed on the doc.
Data source contains 1200+ records. Memory on wkst 512Mb.

When merging, goes quickly for the 1st 8 records, then
slows down. 30 minutes to generate forms for 100 out of
1200 records. Best results when we generate the forms in
batches of 25.

Options: 1. Use a report writer like Crystal. 2. Redo the
form without text fields.

Has anyone else experienced this before?

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Michael,

Background: Master doc 11 x 17, double-sided with 240+
fields. MS Query to extract data from SQL Server db. Doc
also contains several text fields overlayed on the doc.
Data source contains 1200+ records. Memory on wkst 512Mb.

When merging, goes quickly for the 1st 8 records, then
slows down. 30 minutes to generate forms for 100 out of
1200 records. Best results when we generate the forms in
batches of 25.

Options: 1. Use a report writer like Crystal. 2. Redo the
form without text fields.

Has anyone else experienced this before?

I've never really seen a fast MailMerge when you get into the 1000s ...

What might help is if you can leave the text-fields out during the merge
and add them later. Depending on what these are exactly, you might even
be able to do that by Inserting the merged document into a new
template... or via VBA.

2cents
..bob
...Word-MVP