Inserting addresses from previously typed letters: Help MUCH NEEDE

[kniblet0125]

Hello!

If ANYONE can help me out with this, I will do anything to 'pay you back'.

Here is the situation. I type letters for a Doctor's office (not
transcription trained, medically trained and mostly computer literate). The
BIGGEST 'bottleneck' to my efficiency is looking up the Doctor's addresses.
I have a huge book that contains all of the addresses. I have been doing
this for almost a year and hence, have over hundred thousand letters I have
typed. Most of them are to the same 1500-2000 physicians.
Hence, I am looking for a way to 'insert address' into the letter. I think
there is a way that I can create my address book in word, then insert. If
you could tell me if this is possible that would be great!
However, it seems that I would have to 'physically' type in all of the
addresses specifically to the address book in word. THE IDEAL SITUATION:
anyway you know of that I could go through the previously typed documents and
click next to the address and 'insert into address book'. (very similar how
you click next to the address in a document and can print an envelope).
PLEASE HELP!
Thanks!
Michelle
IS THERE A WAY TO DO THIS?

 

[Graham Mayor]

By far the easiest way to do this would be to get the addresses into an
Outlook contacts list. In order to do that you need the addresses in the
form of a list that can be imported into Outlook. It appears that your
'list' is in a paper book? You do, however, appear to have the addresses in
your store of letters on your hard drive. If the letters are all identically
formatted with respect to the addressee information, it should be simple
enough to create a macro to trawl through the letters, extract the
addresses, sort and eliminate duplicates. Can you let us know how the
documents are laid out?

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[kniblet0125]

Yes, the 'addresses' I currently have are in 'paper format'. All of the
letters follow the same format, for the most part. The only difference is
that sometime the 'suite' number is on the same line as the address. How
could I create a macro to create this? The basic's of the letter are as
follows:

May 29th, 2009



Dr. John Smith
890 S Washington
Suite 201
Grandville, MI 49418

RE: Jane Doe DOB: 01/01/1950 DOS: O5/09/2009

Dear Dr. Smith:


This is the basic format of the first few lines of the letters. Again,
sometimes the 'suite number' will be on the same line as the addresses.
Thanks much for your help
Michelle

 

[kniblet0125]

Yes, the 'addresses' I currently have are in 'paper format'. All of the
letters follow the same format, for the most part. The only difference is
that sometime the 'suite' number is on the same line as the address. How
could I create a macro to create this? The basic's of the letter are as
follows:

May 29th, 2009



Dr. John Smith
890 S Washington
Suite 201
Grandville, MI 49418

RE: Jane Doe DOB: 01/01/1950 DOS: O5/09/2009

Dear Dr. Smith:


This is the basic format of the first few lines of the letters. Again,
sometimes the 'suite number' will be on the same line as the addresses.
Thanks much for your help
Michelle

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Sounds to me like you need to create a template for your letters that
contains a user form on which you have a combobox or listbox that is
populated with the addresses, which you would store in an external source.
That could either be a Word document, and Excel spreadsheet or a table in an
Access database.

See the article "How to create a Userform" at:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Userforms/CreateAUserForm.htm

and the following pages of fellow MVP Greg Maxey's website :

http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/Create_and_employ_a_UserForm.htm

http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/Populate_UserForm_ListBox.htm

With a little bit of extra code, you could have a facility that would allow
you to add a new address to the "address store" via an additional button on
the userform.

--
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, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Graham Mayor]

If the letters are all similar then it is fairly simple to extract the
addresses, however I need some more information (or a sample letter). Press
the ¶ button on the formatting toolbar (home tab in Word 2007) or CTRL+*
(CTRL+SHIFT+8) to display the formatting.

May 29th, 2009



Dr. John Smith
890 S Washington
Suite 201
Grandville, MI 49418

RE: Jane Doe DOB: 01/01/1950 DOS: O5/09/2009

Dear Dr. Smith:


Is the date on the top line or is there a ¶ or more before it?
How is the space between the date and the addressee made up? By paragraph
spacing or a a number of ¶s. If so, how many?
Does the address always occupy 4 lines or does it sometimes occupy 3. Is
each line terminated with ¶ or a line break character which looks a bit like
¬
How is the space between the last line of the address and the subject line
made up?
Where the Suite is on the same line as the address does it appear before or
after the address?
How is it separated from the address eg by a comma and a space?

If all the lines and spaces are separated by paragraph breaks then run the
following macro on a letter.

Sub Macro1()
Dim orng As Range
Dim SourceDoc As Document
Dim TargetDoc As Document
Set SourceDoc = ActiveDocument
Set TargetDoc = Documents.Add
Set orng = SourceDoc.Range
orng.End = orng.Paragraphs(8).Range.End
orng.Start = orng.Paragraphs(5).Range.Start
orng = Replace(orng, Chr(13), ",")
orng = Replace(orng, Chr(44) & Chr(32), ",")
TargetDoc.Range.InsertAfter orng
SourceDoc.Close wdDoNotSaveChanges
End Sub


http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm

It should extract the address to a new document and close the letter without
changing it. If it does so correctly for both your address layouts, then
report back and I will give you the rest of the code to process the batch of
letters. If it doesn't, then let me know the answers to the further
questions.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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