Mail merge pagination problems

[Walter Briscoe]

In Word 2003, I have a 3 page document to mail merge and print
double-sided via an output document.

I added a page break & each output element prints on 2 sheets of paper.
My input document also has a footer containing [page] {PAGE}/{NUMPAGES}
[ALT + F9 displays such elements symbolically.]

I have two problems:
1) If I try to print part of the output document, the whole document
prints; this was embarrassing until I merged part of the data.
2) In the footer, {PAGE} is reset for each output but {NUMPAGES} is not.
e.g. If I merge 5 documents, I get 1/20, 2/20, 3/20, 4/20, 1/20, ...
I want 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 1/4, ...
[I could probably get the desired form of output by printing directly,
rather than via an output document, but prefer not to.]

None of this is momentous. I would like to have the solutions or
knowledgeable views that I am hitting limitations.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

When you merge to a new document, each "copy" of your 3 page document
results in a new Word Section in the output, so:
a. you need to specify the section you want to print - in Word's Print
Dialog, you can specify page/section ranges using e.g.

p1s1-p3s1

b. you have to use the { SECTIONPAGES } field instead of the { NUMPAGES }
field

That may not fix everything, but it's a start

 

[Walter Briscoe]

I shall comply with the practice of heading a response with the new
text. My preference is to interleave it. I am not up to appending the
original posting to a sig.

I am sorry I took so long to respond to Peter's response.
I now know a little more about sections. {SECTIONPAGES} is more useful
than {NUMPAGES} to me.
I want to pad each "copy" from 3 pages to 4 with a blank page. If I
Insert/Break.../Page Break, any headers and footers appear on the blank
page. I found this works: Insert/Break.../Even Page to create a new
section; disconnect that section from the previous one with View/Headers
and Footers/Link to previous and delete everything in those headers and
footers. The delete operation deletes all headers and footers if Link to
previous is enabled.

At first, I got: 1/3, 2/3, 3/3, blank; 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, blank; ... i.e.
the number of pages in the first section of "copies" other than the
first copy was 4 rather than the 3 I expected. I made this problem go
away by making the last page of the section a line shorter.

That meant that each "copy" of my document consisted of two sections. I
found that File\Print...\Pages: s3p1-s3p3 works as Peter said.
At first, I thought he was using an algebra rather than s and p symbols.
Where is that symbolism documented for Word 2003 & why is it useful?
Why is it useful for File\Print...\Pages: 5-7 to print all pages?

In message <#[email protected]> of Mon, 23 Jun 2008
10:13:53 in microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields, Peter Jamieson

 

[Peter Jamieson]

At first, I thought he was using an algebra rather than s and p symbols.

Where is that symbolism documented for Word 2003 & why is it useful?

You should find it in Word Help - Table of Contents->Printing->Print a
document->Print all or part of a single document->Print Specific pages and
sections.

& why is it useful?

Possibly because quite a lot of people structure their documents using
sections and probably find it useful to be able to print specific sections
and partial sections. A number of people doing merge to a new document also
find it useful to be able to do the merge, then print specific sections.

However, because there are online and offline versions of Word Help (I'm
using the Online version) I can't be sure that particular item will be
visible to you.

Why is it useful for File\Print...\Pages: 5-7 to print all pages?

I don't think it is (if I have understood you correctly). Personally, I've
always found Word's approach to printing pages confusing as it's not
completely obvious whether the pages it is talking about are absolute page
numbers absolute page numbers within sections, or somehow related to the
page numbers you may have inserted using { PAGE }. But I don't think the
current syntax has changed for a very long time.

 

[Walter Briscoe]

In message <#[email protected]> of Sat, 5 Jul 2008
14:34:24 in microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields, Peter Jamieson

You should find it in Word Help - Table of Contents->Printing->Print a
document->Print all or part of a single document->Print Specific pages
and sections.

I found the relevant page for Word 2003 was

Possibly because quite a lot of people structure their documents using
sections and probably find it useful to be able to print specific
sections and partial sections. A number of people doing merge to a new
document also find it useful to be able to do the merge, then print
specific sections.

However, because there are online and offline versions of Word Help
(I'm using the Online version) I can't be sure that particular item
will be visible to you.

It was not visible in the offline help.

I don't think it is (if I have understood you correctly). Personally,
I've always found Word's approach to printing pages confusing as it's
not completely obvious whether the pages it is talking about are
absolute page numbers absolute page numbers within sections, or somehow
related to the page numbers you may have inserted using { PAGE }. But I
don't think the current syntax has changed for a very long time.

I am glad you also find it confusing. I am sure "page range in a
document with sections" = "all pages" will bite me again.

Your help is much appreciated.