Merging From WordPerfect dat files?

[Fester Bestertester]

Greetings,

Office 2K3 sp2, XP sp2:

My users prefer to create merge letters in WordPerfect because they love
the Macro feature, which makes it very easy to create the data file.

Is it possible to merge from a WordPerfect .dat file to a Word document?
If so, what are the steps?

 

[Graham Mayor]

This is not possible - however mail merge (if that is what you are really
doing) is simple enough in Word 2003. The basics are covered at
http://www.gmayor.com/mail_merge_labels_with_word_xp.htm
However I suspect that you may not be creating merge letters because of the
different terminology used in these applications. See
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/Letterhead.htm and
http://www.gmayor.com/Macrobutton.htm and investigate autotext and
autocorrect in Word which will all server to automate your Word letters.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Fester Bestertester]

...I suspect that you may not be creating merge letters because of the
different terminology used in these applications....investigate autotext and
autocorrect in Word which will all server to automate your Word letters.

I have created over 300 autotext entries, and saved them to a shared
..dot file, so that these entries are globally available to all users in
all sessions and on all documents. The defect with this approach is
that the .dot file cannot be edited unless all users are kicked out of
all Word sessions for however long it takes to accomplish the editing.

One alternative is to distribute individual copies of the .dot to each
user's local machine and let them edit them themselves, which, believe
me, they are never going to be able to maintain (and which I wouldn't
want to do anyway, because it will inevitably result in 100+ versions of
the .dot file...)

Another alternative is for me to edit the .dot on my machine and then
distribute that file to each user's machine, which, believe me, I am
never going to have time for (if we were only talking about a dozen or
so users, maybe, but 100+? I don't think so...)

Corel's Macro text feature has always been vastly superior in this
regard, in that each of the macro files are stored individually in a
separate shared directory from the .exe and the document files. New
macros can be created, and existing ones edited, on the fly, by any user
in the environment, regardless of whether any other users currently have
any sessions open. These new and edited macros are immediately available
to all users.

It's puzzling that MicroSquish never ripped off this feature and put it
into Word, seeing as how ripping off other people's innovations seems to
be their stock in trade, and considering that it's just about the only
reason to keep using WordPerfect at all (that and the fact that we have
20 years worth of legacy files...)

But thanks for replying just the same.

 

[Beth Melton]

Is there a reason you can't copy the file to your local drive, make the
changes, and then replace it when everyone is off?

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Fester Bestertester]

Is there a reason you can't copy the file to your local drive, make the
changes, and then replace it when everyone is off?

Why, of course! Every time any one of my 100+ users needs a change, I'll
just make them wait 24 hours so I can come in after 6pm or before 7:30am
and make the changes for them! What a convenient solution! I wonder why
I never thought of it!

In any event, it looks like I got the answer to my original question,
which was, "Can I convert a WordPerfect secondary file and use that as a
data source for a letter merge in Word?"

Evidently, the answer is, "No."

 

[Beth Melton]

No need to be sarcastic. Typically, AutoText entries contain information
that is frequently used and doesn't change - which is why the global
template method works for most.

It's interesting that you have so many changes. That makes me wonder if you
are using the best tool for the job. What are some of your AutoText entries?
What types of changes do you need to make?

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Fester Bestertester]

No need to be sarcastic.

Au contraire, the sarcasm is entirely appropriate.

It's interesting that you have so many changes. That makes me wonder if you
are using the best tool for the job.

You're right, it's not the best tool for the job, it's just Microsoft's
tool for the job.

The *best* tool for the job is a Macro feature where the codes for the
Macros are stored in separate files in a separate directory and can be
created and edited on the fly without disrupting anyone's work, and
which are immediately available to all users in the environment as soon
as they are created/edited.

Unfortunately, even Word 2K7 doesn't have this feature.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I think what Beth is getting at is that if you tell us what you are doing
with these macros or AutoText entries, we may be able to point out a better
way to do this in Word.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

See the article "Distributing macros to other users" at:

http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/DistributeMacros.htm


--
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

 

[Fester Bestertester]

See the article "Distributing macros to other users" at:

http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/DistributeMacros.htm

Been there, read it, years ago. The users and I agree that it's a poor
substitute for Corel's Macro feature.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Another alternative is for me to edit the .dot on my machine and then
distribute that file to each user's machine, which, believe me, I am
never going to have time for (if we were only talking about a dozen or
so users, maybe, but 100+? I don't think so...)

Logon Script, distributing all templates to each user profile on startup.

If you have a lot of consultants (read: mobile users), you need to teach
them to actually logoff every now and then, but other than that ...

2cents
Robert