Mail Merge into Publisher

[Holly]

I have an exel file with names, addresses etc... that I exported from our
database. I have imported this into Publisher and have a Postnet barcode font
that is supposed to work for the USPS.
The problem that I am having is that the addresses are not sorted properly
for us to batch.

Do we need some sort of plug in to be able to do this?

Thanks

 

[Chuck Davis]

Holly,

There is a lot more to it than printing the Postnet barcode for discounted
rates. I assume that is the purpose of your printing the barcode in the
first place. The mailing list must be CASS certified. There is expensive
software (expensive because of the constant updating). There exists some
software available for this on line, but is usually limited to 400
addresses.

Ask at your local Post Office for publication "Domestic Mail Manual 200
Series" You may be able to order one on the US Postal Services site:
http://www.usps.com/

 

[Holly]

Thanks Chuck,
Actually, the addresses are CASS certified. We have this module in our
software as well as the module that adds the numbers for the barcode but when
we export the data the sorting gets out of order and we can't seem to put it
back in the same order that it needs to be in..... like it is when we print
labels from our database. We tried just sorting it again by barcode, by
carrier code, by zip code etc... but nothing puts it back in the order it
needs to be in.

We were just trying to get away from printing labels because it is so time
consuming so we thought that we could export the data and merge it into
Publisher.

Any suggestions?

 

[Chuck Davis]

Holly,

After years of working with the Postal Service sending only 3 - 400
newsletters, our Chamber of Commerce (not eligible for non-profit rates)
found a Mail Service Provider that was also the printer. Currentl;y our
charitable foundation again found a Mail Service Provider to be the best for
our 6,000+ mailings. Even with volunteer help, it's the best way to go.

 

[drc023]

Once all the data in Excel is correct, try saving the file as text (tab or
comma delimited) and use that file as input to mail merge. Publisher doesn't
import Excel files too well, but does fine with text files.