Merge Problem

[WJ Shack]

I have set up a merge document to print labels for DVDs. The merge document
is formatted to print the labels. There are 6 labels/page. The first label
has a merge field <<Title>>, the next labels have <<Next Record>><<Title>>
(the real doc has the true merge field character, I just used <<>> in the
email). If I have a data source document with say 3 titles or 24 titles,
and choose "All" in the Document merge manager, everything works fine and I
get a new document with the titles as expected. If however, I have 24
titles and only want to print labels for the first four, I expect when I
choose Custom in the Merge Manager and enter from 1 to 4 to get only the
first four titles. I get six. In short if I have more than six titles, I
get all the titles when I choose "All" and I get six titles when I choose
Custom and then from 1 to any number n, where n is less than 24.

What am I doing wrong or don't understand about the data merge manager (Word
2004, 10.4.3)?

 

[Jeffrey Weston [MSFT]]

Hey WJ,

You are using the Data Merge Manager correctly.

The reason you get 6 lables (filling the page) instead of 4 is because when
there is a <<Next Record>> field, Word will ignore your custom end range
setting (in your example, 4) until it has filled in all the <<Next Record>>
fields. After it has filled the page it will then check to see if it
reached your specified limit of 4.

Word acts rather short sighted that way.

Your data sources with 3 titles worked because Word ran out of Titles before
it could fill the page and your data source with 24 Titles worked because 24
is divisable by 6, so Word could fill your entire 6 Label merge page
completely.

If you *really* want Word to only print the correct number of lables, you
can either remove the extra <<Next Record>> files in the document so you get
an even divisor of your total number of Titles (i.e. 6 goes evenly into 24),
or you can have the exact number of Titles in your data source that you want
to use.

Hope this info helps,

--
Jeffrey Weston
Mac Word Test
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

I'm glad you answered this one, Jeffrey. It baffled me.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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From: "Jeffrey Weston [MSFT]" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.word
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2006 16:25:50 -0800
Subject: Re: Merge Problem

Hey WJ,

You are using the Data Merge Manager correctly.

The reason you get 6 lables (filling the page) instead of 4 is because when
there is a <<Next Record>> field, Word will ignore your custom end range
setting (in your example, 4) until it has filled in all the <<Next Record>>
fields. After it has filled the page it will then check to see if it
reached your specified limit of 4.

Word acts rather short sighted that way.

Your data sources with 3 titles worked because Word ran out of Titles before
it could fill the page and your data source with 24 Titles worked because 24
is divisable by 6, so Word could fill your entire 6 Label merge page
completely.

If you *really* want Word to only print the correct number of lables, you
can either remove the extra <<Next Record>> files in the document so you get
an even divisor of your total number of Titles (i.e. 6 goes evenly into 24),
or you can have the exact number of Titles in your data source that you want
to use.

Hope this info helps,

--
Jeffrey Weston
Mac Word Test
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

I have set up a merge document to print labels for DVDs. The merge
document
is formatted to print the labels. There are 6 labels/page. The first label
has a merge field <<Title>>, the next labels have <<Next Record>><<Title>>
(the real doc has the true merge field character, I just used <<>> in the
email). If I have a data source document with say 3 titles or 24 titles,
and choose "All" in the Document merge manager, everything works fine and
I
get a new document with the titles as expected. If however, I have 24
titles and only want to print labels for the first four, I expect when I
choose Custom in the Merge Manager and enter from 1 to 4 to get only the
first four titles. I get six. In short if I have more than six titles, I
get all the titles when I choose "All" and I get six titles when I choose
Custom and then from 1 to any number n, where n is less than 24.

What am I doing wrong or don't understand about the data merge manager
(Word
2004, 10.4.3)?