How to programmatically use MailMerge in Word 2003?

[Ram]

I have a word document with all the Custom MailMerge fields defined.
The file is saved as an XML document. I have data file for this
document coming to me in an XML format which contains data for all the
merge fields.

I would like to programmatically invoke Word 2003 from a .NET
Application and apply the XML as the datasource, process the document
and send to the printer.

Is it possible? If not, is there a better way to accomplish this?

Thanks,
Ram

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Ram,

It's not possible for the very simple reason that Word can't use XML
files as data sources for mail merge. If you consider very logically how
complexly an XML file can be set up, then it makes sense the MS
developers would say Word couldn't do this. Of course, the "normal user"
looks at an XML file/data source very much as a delimited text file - it
wouldn't contain this complexity...

Anyhow, that's the situation. So you'd need an alternate approach. First
thing I'd check, however, is whether you can actually open this Word
document you've saved as "XML" and perform a mail merge with it. Since
there are different "flavors" of XML when one discusses Word 2003, it's
important to assure what you want will work before you go any further.

If it does work, then I'd say use a transform on your XML data file to
create a delimited text file. Use the OpenDataSource method to link the
merge document to that, and off you go.

The other approach would be to:
- don't use mail merge at all
- the Word file should be a TEMPLATE
- use the Documents.Add method to create a new document for each record
you want to process
- use DOM to drop the data into the document

I have a word document with all the Custom MailMerge fields defined.
The file is saved as an XML document. I have data file for this
document coming to me in an XML format which contains data for all the
merge fields.

I would like to programmatically invoke Word 2003 from a .NET
Application and apply the XML as the datasource, process the document
and send to the printer.

Is it possible? If not, is there a better way to accomplish this?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Ram]

Thanks Cindy.

I did verify that if I transfrom my XML data to a delimited file, and
provide that as the datasource, Mail Merge works fine.

Now, can you point me to place where I can see how to do this
programmtically from a .NET Application?

Basically, I want to load this Document, set the datasource to the
delimited file, save it and send to printer.

Can you help?

Thanks,
Ram

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Ram,

I did verify that if I transfrom my XML data to a delimited file, and
provide that as the datasource, Mail Merge works fine.

Now, can you point me to place where I can see how to do this
programmtically from a .NET Application?

Do which? What you describe below, or convering the XML to a delimited
file?

If the below, could you please record making the connection to the text
file in Word (Tools/Macro/Record) so that I can see what the connection
information your text file needs for the OpenDataSource method?

Basically, I want to load this Document, set the datasource to the
delimited file, save it and send to printer.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question
or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Ram]

Following is the code which running on the server to perform MailMerge
programatically(see code below).....

The problem I am facing is that, the MailMerged document needs to be
saved and I want to control the fileName and location to where it is
getting saved. And later print it. How do I accomplish that?

- Ram

************************************************
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application wrdApp;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document wrdDoc;
//Create an instance of Word, and make it invisible
wrdApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application();
wrdApp.Visible = false;
//Open the template
object strFileName = "C:\\Test\\TestDoc.doc";
object optional = Missing.Value;
wrdDoc = wrdApp.Documents.Open(ref strFileName,
ref optional,ref optional,ref optional,ref optional,ref optional,ref
optional,
ref optional,ref optional, ref optional,ref optional,ref optional,ref
optional,
ref optional,ref optional,ref optional);

//set the Data File
string strDataFileName = "C:\\Test\\TestDataFile.CSV";
wrdDoc.MailMerge.OpenDataSource(strDataFileName, ref optional, ref
optional, ref optional, ref optional,
ref optional, ref optional, ref optional, ref optional, ref optional,
ref optional,
ref optional, ref optional, ref optional, ref optional, ref optional);
//Perform Merge
wrdDoc.MailMerge.Execute(ref optional);
object blnSave = false;
wrdDoc.Close(ref blnSave, ref optional, ref optional);
wrdApp.Quit(ref optional, ref optional, ref optional);
****************************************************

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Ram,

Following is the code which running on the server to perform MailMerge
programatically(see code below).....

The problem I am facing is that, the MailMerged document needs to be
saved and I want to control the fileName and location to where it is
getting saved. And later print it. How do I accomplish that?

Right, thanks for showing me where you are.

After the merge has executed, and you've closed wrdDoc the merge result
should still be open as a document. You might want to set the
wdApp.Visible = True while you work your way through this, just so that
you can double-check what's going on

So, what you'd need to do is something like this (I've left out most
of the arguments):
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document wrdMergeResult
wrdMergeResult = wrdApp.ActiveDocument
wrdMergeResult.SaveAs "Filepath and name"
wrdMergeResult.PrintOut
wrdMergeResult.Close

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question
or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Ram]

Thanks Cindy. That was very helpful

In your Message 2 in the Thread, you had mentioned about an alternate
approach to solve the problem

The other approach would be to:
- don't use mail merge at all
- the Word file should be a TEMPLATE
- use the Documents.Add method to create a new document for each record
you want to process
- use DOM to drop the data into the document

Can you explain further on how to accomplish that? You can use the
same example I have mentioned in the earlier thread.

Thanks,
Ram

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Ram,

In your Message 2 in the Thread, you had mentioned about an alternate
approach to solve the problem

Can you explain further on how to accomplish that? You can use the
same example I have mentioned in the earlier thread.

DOM should be COM (sorry about that), which may make more sense

The "target points" in the document you're creating can be various
things, but most commonly bookmarks are used. When setting up the
template, insert bookmarks instead of merge fields.

In your controlling application, create a data source in memory (using
ADO.NET, for example [with which I'm not familiar, so forgive me if my
sample code looks suspiciously like a mixture of DAO and ADO] )

The code for the Word stuff would roughly be as follows. I'm assuming
you've already taken care of creating the data source, for which I'll
use rs (recordset)

Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application wrdApp;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document wrdDoc;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Range wrdRng
//Create an instance of Word, and make it invisible
wrdApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application();
wrdApp.Visible = false;
//Open the template
object strFileName = "C:\\Test\\TestDoc.dot";
object optional = Missing.Value;
wrdDoc = wrdApp.Documents.Add(ref strFileName);

object strBookmarkName = rs.Fields.Item(1).Name
object strData = rs.Fields.Item(1).Value
//We recreate the bookmark around the data so that
//it can be targeted again, if desired
//Note: I usually make this a separate function
If wrdDoc.Bookmarks.Exists(strBookmarkName) Then
wrdRng = wrdDoc.Bookmarks(strBookmarkName).Range
wrdRng.Text = strData
wrdDoc.Bookmarks.Add(strBookmarkName, wrdRng)
End If

wrdDoc.Close(ref blnSave, ref optional, ref optional);
wrdApp.Quit(ref optional, ref optional, ref optional);
****************************************************


Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question
or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Ram]

Cindy:

I was reading through the article...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/un...2k3ta/html/odc_xmlinoffice2003_summarydoc.asp

In this article, right below Figure 2, the author says...
"In addition, using smart tags or smart documents, developers can
attach logic to specific XML elements within the document. For example
in the figure above, Contoso could build a solution to aid their
salespeople when filling out the Receipt of Samples Form shown in the
figure above. In such a solution, a custom-built DLL could retrieve
the doctor's information from Contoso's internal records and
automatically insert it into the proper fields based on the XML tags
within the document."

With the use of "XML Toolbox for Word", I can convert the XML tags in
the documents to Nodes. My question is that, can these Nodes to be
easily replaced by providing the XML file containing the data
programmatically? (something like MailMerge.Execute()). Or is the
author talking about programatically replacing the XML tags one by one
like what you had mentioned earlier "using bookmarks"?

Ram

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Ram,

In addition, using smart tags or smart documents, developers can
attach logic to specific XML elements within the document.

Just so we're clear: anything about smart docs is not mail-merge
related. When the user puts the focus in a document within an XML tag,
the "Document Actions" task pane could change, and code could be
executed. But it's all user-interactive, so isn't really relevant to
your question.

With the use of "XML Toolbox for Word", I can convert the XML tags in
the documents to Nodes. My question is that, can these Nodes to be
easily replaced by providing the XML file containing the data
programmatically? (something like MailMerge.Execute()). Or is the
author talking about programatically replacing the XML tags one by one
like what you had mentioned earlier "using bookmarks"?

I'm not familiar with the "XML toolbox" (do you have a URL?), but
generally I can tell you that you should be able to assign value to XML
tags/nodes. I'm not sure why you'd prefer to do that in the Word UI,
however, since working with Word is generally slower than manipulating a
pure text file. It would almost certainly be faster to use xslt and dom
to "merge" data into an XML "structure", then open and print that in
Word.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question
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