Large Merge File Chokes

[Nick X]

Hi all,
I have a large merge file that is built through an automated process in MS
Access XP. I am uisng Word XP. There is an average of about 4000 records
that are merged. This has worked fine for the last 2 years, but this year
the director gave us an edited copy of the Word document. Now the print job
chokes after about 150 records. I copied and pasted the changes into the
original document and everything seemed to be going good. The print job got
up to about 1000 records and choked again. Now it is back to only printing
about 150 at a time. There has not been any changes in hardware or software
(except that they moved to new print servers).

Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks,
NickX

 

[Peter Jamieson]

1. Are you merging directly to the printer, or merging to an output document
first?

2. Are you able to change the print destination, or merge to an output
document, for testing purposes?

3. Does it still work OK with the original Mail Merge Main Document?

4. If you can merge to an output document, I suggest you try merging a
number of records (say 100) using the original Mail Merge Main Document,
then using the new Mail Merge Main Document, and see if there is any
substantial difference in file size in the output.

5. What kind of changes are you making to the Mail Merge Main Document? (I
don't think anyone here is likely to know /exactly/ what causes slowdowns,
but for example, using formatted bullets used to slow Merges to a crawl).

Peter Jamieson

 

[Nick X]

Peter,

1. Are you merging directly to the printer, or merging to an output document
first?

-my merge goes from Access into a Word merge document

2. Are you able to change the print destination, or merge to an output
document, for testing purposes?

-we tried several different printers and got the same results on all

3. Does it still work OK with the original Mail Merge Main Document?

-it seemed to work, I copied and pasted the changes into the original
document and it printed fine for about the first 1000 records

4. If you can merge to an output document, I suggest you try merging a
number of records (say 100) using the original Mail Merge Main Document,
then using the new Mail Merge Main Document, and see if there is any
substantial difference in file size in the output.

5. What kind of changes are you making to the Mail Merge Main Document? (I
don't think anyone here is likely to know /exactly/ what causes slowdowns,
but for example, using formatted bullets used to slow Merges to a crawl).

-the only changes that were made were text, no formatting was changed and no
fields were changed.

Do you think it could be that the data needs reconnected somehow?

Thanks,
NickX

 

[Peter Jamieson]

but for example, using formatted bullets used to slow Merges to a

-the only changes that were made were text, no formatting was changed and
no
fields were changed.

That is curious. I wonder if change tracking is switched on? If so, make
sure you accept all the changes in the document and switch it off. That's my
best guess for the moment.

Do you think it could be that the data needs reconnected somehow?

Since I don't know what the cause is, I can't rule anything out, but that
wouldn't be my first thought if nothing has changed in that area.

Peter Jamieson