Mail Merge "Ask" Rule

[csinnett]

In Word 2007 we're attempting to set up a mail merge template that includes
an "Ask" rule where we'll provide individualized response for each customer
(e.g. you owe us this many $$). The rule appears to work but we're having a
problem - the prompt comes up for each record but it doesn't display which
merge record it applies to. Does anyone know how to get the merge prompt to
display a merge field (say last name) so we can tell whose record we're
working on?

Thanks,

Chris

 

[macropod]

Hi csinnett,

You might be able to get what you're after by embedding the relevant mergefield in the ASK field. To do this:
.. press Ctrl-F9 twice, to create a pair of nested field braces thus '{ { } }'
.. Fill in/around the field braces so that you get '{ASK BkMrk "Prompt for {MERGEFIELD KeyField} variable"}'
where:
. 'BkMrk' is your bookmark's name.
. 'Prompt for ' and 'variable' are the parts of your prompt. Note that you need the double quotes.
. 'KeyField' is the relevant merge source field.

 

[csinnett]

Thanks for the quick response. Didn't work though; I don't think you can get
it to display any of the variables when using the ask rule.

Frankly I don't understand how you're supposed to use it if you can't tell
what record you're on. Right now we're trying to get them to put the data in
the csv file instead of using manual entry.

Chris

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Curious because it works fine here (Word 2007 & merging to a new document).
What did the prompt actually display?

 

[Nathan Power]

Thanks for the quick replies folks. I work with csinnett and he passed me
the information that macropod posted. When I attempted it the first time I
was receiving a blank line or the {MERGEFIELD First_Name} {MERGEFIELD
Last_Name}.

I re-did the process again (so I could type up a response here) and it works
fabulously. It appears that I fat-fingered something in the test line that I
did (probably a missed bracket or quote).

The feature works as described. Thanks for both of your comments on getting
this resolved for us. This will work perfectly!

- Nathan