Importing an Address Book for Mail Merge

[Larry B]

I am trying to exported my Printmaster7 Address Book to Word 97 as part of
a Mail Merge project. Word Help says that it can work with either Tab
Delimited (txt) or Comma Delimited (csv) files. With the Printmaster Address
Book open, Save As gives the choice of saving as either of these. However, I
tried both but Word rejects both "Word is unable to open data source". Word
or Notepad have no problem opening up the txt file directly. Nor does Excel
have a problem with the csv file. So, neither are corrupted, per se. Is Word
finicky in this regard??

Any ideas?? Thanks,

Lar

 

[Graham Mayor]

Word used to be unselective in its choice of data source, but a series of
Windows security updates have made things difficult, by removing or
replacing the converters required. Without seeing the file it is difficult
to comment but if Word will open the file directly (not as a data source)
use table > convert text to table and see if the resulting file will work as
a data source.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Peter Jamieson]

Word certainly can be finickity. Your best bet is probably to export to
Excel and use that as the data source, or open the exported file in Word,
save as a .doc, and see if that works. However, the most likely problem is
that Word 97 is trying to open the .txt or .csv file using ODBC rather than
its text converter - if you check the Select method box in Open Data Source
and specifically select the text converter, or change the file extension to
..dat, things may be different.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Larry B]

I looked around and found the Select Method you suggested. I guess it was
set to DDE so I changed it to ODBC Text(.txt) only and it merges great now!!
Honestly, I don't get it, but it works and I am thankful.

This is an easy question (for most, probably) but I created a custom label
template. I am not happy with the locations of the merge fields themselves.
I cannot find a way to adjust their placement. Is that possible or do I have
to start over by creating a new template?

Thanks!!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

A label layout is just a Word table, so I'd have a look around the various
options under the table menu.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Larry B]

Thanks Peter.

In order to set position and size of the merge fields (6 labels per page), I
created a Text Box for each label on the template and put the merge fields
in them. This has created an error after having initiated the merge that
says, "You cannot include DATA, NEXT, NEXTIF, or SKIPIF fields in comments,
headers, footers, footnotes or endnotes". I have not knowingly employed
comments, headers, footers, etc. I did check the header and footer, and
comments areas and they are all empty.

This was certainly unexpected. Can you please assist with this, too? Thank
you.

 

[Doug Robbins]

As Peter indicated, labels are handled in Word as tables with fixed cell
dimensions. Accordingly, I would suggest that you do it that way, either by
locating a label that suits from those that are available from the various
manufacturers whose products are listed under the Labels dialog, or by just
creating your own table that has dimensions to suit - even that is probably
easier to do by selecting one of the existing labels and modifying it.

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Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Larry B]

Hi Doug,


So, just as a reality check, please confirm that you are suggesting, in
effect, that I use the tables cell boundries to position and contain the
fields, instead of my error-ridden text box method. I also want to put a
graphic on these labels. Can I overlay a graphic on top of the cells or will
I have to incluce a separate cell for each graphic? It may just be easier
to do the graphics in one printing run and then do another with the merge
fields.

BTW, it was the field called "NextRecord" contained within each text box
that caused the error.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Text boxes do not work well in conjunction with merge fields. Text boxes are
not in the text plane of the document, so it is not surprising that you are
having problems.
See - http://www.gmayor.com/mail_merge_labels_with_word_xp.htm
and
http://www.gmayor.com/graphics_on_labels.htm

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Larry B]

I just wanted to thank all of you for your help. Text boxes in a label
template seemed like a good idea at the time. I love text boxes, really. So
I built a new label template using the cell boundries to control the merge
field size issue. Worked great. After probably 12 hours of fartin' around,
it turned out that the placecard stock that I was given would tear along a
perforation 2/3 into a print cycle rendering the entire project moot.

Nevertheless, your assistance will make my next project a great deal easier
(as long as I test the paper stock first). Best regards, Lar