merge is pulling in every other record?

[andi]

I've set up a mail merge doc in word for 6 labels/page and the formatting is
perfect - each label lines up right where I want it. I am merging it with an
excel doc which has the data. The weird thing is, when I do the merge, it is
pulling in every OTHER row of data. So only half of my labels are printing.
Does that ring a bell for anything obvious? I can email the merge form if
necessary. The form goes like this <<name>><<next record>> (second
line)<<table no.>> <<next record>>. Help? Thank you!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

You should have one <<Next record>> before all the other fields on each
label, but no <<Next record>> in the first record on the page.

Peter Jamieson

 

[andi]

Thanks for your help but that just made things worse. Now it pulls in the
first name in the list twice, then skips 2, gets 3, skips 4, gets 5, skips 6,
gets 7, skips 8, gets 9 (that's 6 labels on the first page) - then repeats
that pattern when it goes to the next merged page (prints first label on
second page twice, skips next, etc.).

 

[Peter Jamieson]

If you use Alt-F9 to show the field codes (so they look like { NEXT }, {
MERGEFIELD myfield } etc.) do you see one { NEXT } at the beginning of each
label except the first? (sorry, I said record before when I meant label)?

If you select Table|Show Gridlines (In Word 2002/2003, not sure where it is
in Word 2007), does your table have an extra thin column between each
"label" column? Some label layouts are like that, and some just have one
column for each column of labels. But if you see the thin columns, do they
contain any fields? If so, get rid of them.

Finally, can you click the "pilcrow" button in the standard toolbar (it's
the one that looks like a fancy wrong-way-round "P"), to ensure that there
are no { NEXT } fields formatted as hidden text?

Peter Jamieson

 

[andi]

Well, I feel like I'm getting closer but still problems. Don't know if this
matters but I did find that my { NEXT } codes were After the merge fields,
not before so I moved all of them. Also, one of the merge fields looked like
this: { MERGEFIELD name } and the other had quotes { MERGEFIELD "table" }
The first two records (labels) merge fine - top left label, top right label.
After that is where it skips to every other name on the data source. Now
that I can see the page code - I also noticed that there is a funny little
character like a circle with four lines coming out from the four "corners"
(at 10/2/5/7 oclock) after each record AND outside the fine lines to the
right of the margin. Is that just merge code? Pulling my hair out on this
one. I do merge docs all the time. These are 175 place cards that at this
point, it would have been faster to just type in all the names and table
no's!!! Any more ideas? Let me know if I can email you both the word doc
and the excel spreadsheet for you to look at. Thanks again for your time and
help on this.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Hi andi,

Let me know if I can email you both the word doc
and the excel spreadsheet for you to look at.

Yes, take "Killmap" out of my address and send them.

this: { MERGEFIELD name } and the other had quotes { MERGEFIELD "table" }

The quotes are only strictly necessary when the name has spaces or perhaps
other unusual characters.

After that is where it skips to every other name on the data source. Now
that I can see the page code - I also noticed that there is a funny little
character like a circle with four lines coming out from the four "corners"

These sound like the end-of-cell markers in your table (they are like
paragraph markers but, err..., mark end of cell. No need to worry about them
if so.

Peter Jamieson

 

[andi]

tried your addess minus the killmap (pjj at etc.) and it rejected saying
can't find a host named Spjjnet.demon.co.uk??

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Sorry andi, I should have said KillmapS

Peter Jamieson

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

The funny little characters are just the end of cell markers and mean
nothing. They will disappear if you click on the Show/Hide button (¶)

As Peter said in an earlier post if you toggle on the display of the field
codes by using Alt+F9, you should have the same mergefields in each label
(whether there are quote marks around the field name does not really matter,
and BEFORE the first Merge field in every label EXCEPT the first - something
like

{ MERGEFIELD name } | { NEXT }{MERGEFIELD name }|
{NEXT }{ MERGEFIELD name }
{ MERGEFIELD table } | { MERGEFIELD table }
| { MERGEFIELD table }
_____________________________|_____________________________|_____________________________
{ NEXT }{ MERGEFIELD name } | { NEXT }{MERGEFIELD name }|
{NEXT }{ MERGEFIELD name }
{ MERGEFIELD table } | { MERGEFIELD table }
| { MERGEFIELD table }
_____________________________|_____________________________|_____________________________


--
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

 

[Peter Jamieson]

This problem now solved after the documents were sent to me - too many {
NEXT } fields.

Peter Jamieson