MailMerge - Working application.

[Jon (UK)]

I have a header text file with 578 field headings. There are about 200 Word
templates. Each template is set to use this single header file from the Word
menu across all the templates. The datasource text file is also mapped
manually from the Word menus for each template. Both file names do not
change. Just the contents of the datasource file which is copied from a
Windows server after a word letter is requested. The datasource file
determines which values are used in the letter.This has worked well up to
now, but there problems occurring as the template loses its datasource so no
merge can occur. Is there a more robust way of resolving this problem. Mainly
Word 2000 on XP moving up to Word 2003

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Are you creating multiple letters each time, or is just one letter being
created in each instance?

If it's is just one letter (and even probably for multiple letters), I would
probably be inclined to use DOCVARIABLE fields in place of MERGEFIELDS and
have an autonew macro in the templates that populated document variables
with the values from the data source.

Mail merge main documents losing their data source appears to be coming a
more prevalent problem, especially when the data source is located on a
network drive. It's a problem that does not appear to have been solved once
and for all at this point.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Jon (UK)]

Doug,

Thanks for your response. Each user can request a letter on a ad-hoc basis
and each word instance will contain a single merged letter. Multiple
instances, each with a single letter can be displayed on a users monitor, if
the jobs back up.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

On the basis that a more robust application would be one that does not fail
because it cannot find the datasource, and as only one letter is being
produced per data source, if starting from scratch I would most definitely
use the DOCVARIABLE approach. An alternative however might be to add an
autonew or autoopen macro to the letters that contained the necessary code
to open the appropriate data source.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP