Including a Chart in a Mail Merge

[Scott]

I would like to include a chart in a mail merge -- for
each recipient, the layout would be the same; but the
values would be unique.

I have the values stored in the same row as the
recipient's name and email address.

My latest thought was to see if there was a way to use
the mail merge fields in the Word Chart datasheet; but
that doesn't seem to work.

Is there a way to do this?

Please let me know,

Scotty

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Scott,

I would like to include a chart in a mail merge -- for
each recipient, the layout would be the same; but the
values would be unique.

I have the values stored in the same row as the
recipient's name and email address.

My latest thought was to see if there was a way to use
the mail merge fields in the Word Chart datasheet; but
that doesn't seem to work.

Is there a way to do this?

No really nice, easy, comfortable one. But it is possible.
There are three basic approaches I'll outline for you, and
you may want to do a search through this group on Google,
back over the past four years, on my name, plus Chart or
Graph to turn up more detailed discussions...

1. Generate the charts (preferably on Chart sheets) in
Excel. Include the chart sheet name in an additional field
in the data source. Use this Mergefield in a Word LINK
field to bring the chart across during the merge.

2. Place the data in the Word document in the form of a
table. You can then link this table to a Microsoft GRAPH
object. Executing the merge won't work, but you can
view/print each record individually in the main merge
document.

3. Place the data in the Word document in the form of a
table. Execute the merge to a new document and generate MS
Graph or Excel Chart objects there.

Of course, any of the three can be made much more workable
with a good bit of VBA code to take over the repetitive
work. (2) is certainly easiest if you've no VBA programming
experience at all...

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

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[Scott]

I know enough VBA to be dangerous so I think I'm going to
give option #1 a shot -- unless you think I should use
one of the other options.

In Excel, I have created a chart in it's own sheet for
the first record and have the VBA set up to copy and
modify the charts to additional chart sheets.

I then have the link to the sheets stored in each data
row. And am attempting to use this Mergefield in a Word
LINK field to bring the chart across during the merge.

Should the value in the spreadsheet column "Chart" be in
the format...

Excel.Chart.8 "C:\\data\\My Documents\\interactive
metronome\\Documents\\flamingo road through 10
sessions.xls" "Chart1" \a

or

{LINK Excel.Chart.8 "C:\\data\\My Documents\\interactive
metronome\\Documents\\flamingo road through 10
sessions.xls" "Chart2" \a \p}

And should the Link in the Word Document be...

{LINK <<Chart>>}

or

{<<Chart>>}

Or something totally different.

Thanks,

Scotty

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Scott,

I know enough VBA to be dangerous so I think I'm going to
give option #1 a shot -- unless you think I should use
one of the other options.

Should be fine, as long as Excel can handle the file-size
load

Should the value in the spreadsheet column "Chart" be in
the format...

Just the chart sheet name, ideally. As long as they're all
in the same file. So: Chart1 and Chart2 (without the quotes)

Then, in the Word document, the link field would resemble:

{ LINK Excel.Chart.8 "C:\\data\\My Documents\\interactive
metronome\\Documents\\flamingo road through 10
sessions.xls" "{ Mergefield Chart}" \a \p }

KEEP IN MIND that all { } must be entered using Ctrl+F9 or a
command that inserts a field. So, you can use the normal way
to insert the merge field. And view the field codes in their
entirety with Alt+F9.

Note: So, you canNOT include { } in the Excel column, the
literal text wouldn't translate to a field code in Word!

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

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any
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