Linking mailmerged doc files, to make one file?...

[kimer12345]

Hi all -

I'm hoping there's an easy solution for this, I'm sure there is...

I have 4 data-linked .DOC files that are linked to 1 excel spreadsheet
(2 different worksheets within spreadsheet). I have different field
criteria that uses both worksheets within the excel file, that's why
I've ended up with 4 .DOC label files.

I'd like all of these 4 files to be 1 .DOC label file, so the label
info flows one right after the other? That way, I'm not wasting
labels, and I only have to open & print ONE .doc file?...

How to do it? I'm learning as I go with this mail merge label
thing.....thanks in advance!

-Kim.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I would suggest that you add a new worksheet to the Excel file and on that
sheet you combine all of the necessary information in one place so that you
can do everything that you want with just one merge with the one datasource.

--
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

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi Kimer12345,

I have 4 data-linked .DOC files that are linked to 1 excel spreadsheet
(2 different worksheets within spreadsheet). I have different field
criteria that uses both worksheets within the excel file, that's why
I've ended up with 4 .DOC label files.

I'd like all of these 4 files to be 1 .DOC label file, so the label
info flows one right after the other? That way, I'm not wasting
labels, and I only have to open & print ONE .doc file?...

I don't think there's a way to do this from the Word side. You'd have to
"extract" each of the four sets of data into a single table, and link
the single Word document to that. I'm pretty sure that's possible in
Excel, but you should ask in an Excel group about the best way to
approach this.

FWIW, I know it's possible to set up "extraction queries" in Excel, but
these won't produce a single, continuous table. Plus, this was a LONG
time ago, so there may well be a better way (that still wouldn't involve
a macro).

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
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

 

[Peter Jamieson]

One way to do this is to use MS Query to create a query to extract the data
from the other sheets. I wouldn't describe it as "Easy" unless the user is
familiar with both MS Query (which may not even be installed) and SQL. You
would typically need to use a UNION query to do it. Then you would have to
refresh the data before performing the merge.

In theory it would also be possible to use Word OpenDataSource and pretty
much the same query to get all the records at one time, but that's not
"Easy" either and it depends on whether the query can be kept smaller than
the maximum length Word can use.

[FWIW, I also thought it might be possible to put 4 DATABASE fields in a
Word document (each one corresponding to one of the existing documents), and
use that as the data source, getting rid of the header rows for all except
the first table. Again, the user would have to open the data source and
re-execute all the DATABASE fields before merging). The nice thing about
that is that the user should be able to use a familiar method to set up the
queries. Unfortunately, this method is screwed up by the fact that one
paragraph remains between each table and cannot be removed.]

Peter Jamieson