Mail-merge batch print

[Anne Marie]

Hello,

I'm trying to batch print a number of mail-merge documents such that the
selected record in the source is passed to all of the mail-merge documents
and then printed. I thought I could solve it by combining all the mail-merge
templates into a single mail-merge template, but I need different printing
options for each one (eg. some in duplex and others single-paged). Is there
a way to achieve this?

Thanks!

 

[Graham Mayor]

If your printer accepts PCL commands, you *may* be able to use PRINT fields.
A PRINT field is simply a type of field that allows you to send instructions
directly to the printer.

There are 3 possible data values for duplex setting: PRINT 27"&l0S" simplex
PRINT 27"&l1S" vertical duplex . PRINT 27"&l2S" horizontal duplex
(bookformat)

The codes after PRINT are 27 (escape), double quote, ampersand, lowercase L,
0, 1 or 2, uppercase S and finally terminated with a double quote.

Thus for horizontal duplex you would insert the following field :
{ PRINT 27"&l2S" }

Thus you can choose when to turn on and off the duplex function. Otherwise
you would have to merge to a new document and then use a macro to
selectively print. To aid that set up a separate copy of the printer driver
so that one driver defaults to duplex mode and the other to simplex mode.
The macro could then switch between the printer drivers according to the
page numbers - see how to switch printers at
http://www.gmayor.com/fax_from_word.htm

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Walter Briscoe]

In message <[email protected]> of Mon,
7 Jul 2008 00:50:02 in microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields, Anne

Hello,

I'm trying to batch print a number of mail-merge documents such that the
selected record in the source is passed to all of the mail-merge documents
and then printed. I thought I could solve it by combining all the mail-merge
templates into a single mail-merge template, but I need different printing
options for each one (eg. some in duplex and others single-paged). Is there
a way to achieve this?

I would try appending a blank page with insert/break/even page after
every page you want single sided and after the last page of every
document which has an odd number of pages. I would then print
double-sided. YMMV. I have not tried this and am a naive mailmerger.
Headers and footers will need special treatment if you use them.

 

[Anne Marie]

Thanks Graham and Walter -- I've opted for the low-tech solution (ie.
inserting page breaks into the combined template). I still wonder if there
is a way to do such things via a batch program -- I used to write simple DOS
code way-back-when, and haven't made the transition to VBA, so not sure if
the latter is the only way to do this programmatically.