mail merge 2 x 2 double sided

[brad572]

I am needing to use MS mail merge to create double sided cards which fit 4 to
a page (2 wide by 2 tall) and print mail merge fields on both the front and
back of each card. If I use two mail merge templates then I can get the
printing to go double sided by reloading the paper however the backs don't
line up side to side for the correct entries unless I also rebuild by input
list and change the order(new row order of 2,1,4,3 - pain!!). Does anyone
know how to use a single list input to produce a double sided output in 2 x 2
wide double sided and if possible using the printers double side feature so
the stock does not have to be reloaded and run again?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I only know two ways:
a. use a macro to resequence the data - if you search this group for e.g.
"Doug Robbins postcard" (without the quotes) in Google groups you should
find some code by Doug Robbins that will do this for a Word data source.
b. use SET fields to save the values for each card until you need them
again. Unfortunately, this does not wourk with all field types, but for
example, let's assume your data is sequenced correctly for the front side of
the cards and you have a field called myfield.

In a typical one-sided merge you would have:

side 1 row1 column1: (card 1 of 4)

{ MERGEFIELD myfield }

side 1 row1 column2: (card 2 of 4)

{ NEXT }
{ MERGEFIELD myfield }

side 1 row2 column1: (card 3 of 4)

{ NEXT }
{ MERGEFIELD myfield }

side 1 row2 column2: (card 4 of 4)

{ NEXT }
{ MERGEFIELD myfield }

How to modify this depends on whether you can get double-sided printing to
work. To do that, I would try the following:
a. make a page break after the table.
b. copy the contents of the table, paste onto the second page and replace
all the fields with some simple data to test the next two steps (any old
text)
c. go into File|Page Setup and/or your printer driver and do what is
necessary to set up double-sided printing
d. use some ordinary paper and a small amount of test data to test that
double-sided printing works at all, and particularly after the first two
sides

If that works, l then alter page one as follows - there are various ways to
do this but all the {} need to be the special field quotes you can enter
using ctrl-F9.

side 1 row1 column1: (card 1 of 4)

{ SET pc1myfield "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" }
{ MERGEFIELD myfield }

side 1 row1 column2: (card 2 of 4)

{ NEXT }
{ SET pc2myfield "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" }
{ MERGEFIELD myfield }

side 1 row2 column1: (card 3 of 4)

{ NEXT }
{ SET pc3myfield "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" }
{ MERGEFIELD myfield }

side 1 row2 column2: (card 4 of 4)

{ NEXT }
{ SET pc4myfield "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" }
{ MERGEFIELD myfield }

Then set up page two as follows:

side 2 row1 column1: (card 2 of 4)

{ REF pc2myfield }

side 2 row1 column2: (card 1 of 4)

{ REF pc1myfield }

side 1 row2 column1: (card 4 of 4)

{ REF pc4myfield }

side 1 row2 column2: (card 3 of 4)

{ REF pc3myfield }

Peter Jamieson

 

[brad572]

Thank you Peter, it worked wonderful. There was only one issue I had that I
will share here in the event anyone else (that is as novice as I am with
word) ever needs this.

The problem I had was entering the { SET ... } and { REF ....} text. I
tried just typing them in the document however as I discovered you need to
use the mailmerge toolbar item "Insert Word field" and select "Set Bookmark".
Use this for the SET and to get a REF entry do an insert of a SET then go
back and type over the word SET with REF.

Thanks again.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Thanks for the feedback - as a matter of fact I think you are the first in
several years to have taken the trouble to report success on this one
(perhaps all the others failed, who knows?) - FWIW you can insert most field
types using ctrl-F9 to insert the special {} and type everything else in the
usual way.

Peter Jamieson