Merging multiple docs using Includetext problems

[Jigsatics]

Hi!

I'm currently working on a project involving mail merge. Each person,
should have at least one establishment owned. For every establishment,
there will be a document sent to the client. I tried the If..Then..Else
statement using includetext to automatically attached all the necessary
documents for each person. This works but the only problem I
encountered is that it messes up my formatting. Why does it change the
formatting of the original document once it's used in an includetext?
How do I prevent this happening? It's so messed up that I find
bold-type words in the middle of a sentence whereas the original
doesn't have any.

I appreciate any help in solving this problem..

Thanks.

I forgot to mention that I'm using Word 97.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Jigsatics,

I'm currently working on a project involving mail merge. Each person,
should have at least one establishment owned. For every establishment,
there will be a document sent to the client. I tried the If..Then..Else
statement using includetext to automatically attached all the necessary
documents for each person. This works but the only problem I
encountered is that it messes up my formatting. Why does it change the
formatting of the original document once it's used in an includetext?
How do I prevent this happening? It's so messed up that I find
bold-type words in the middle of a sentence whereas the original
doesn't have any.

Does the field where this happens contain a \* MergeFormat switch, by any
chance? (Press Alt+F9 to see the field codes) If it does, try deleting
that and see if things settle down a bit...

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
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[Jigsatics]

Yeah, it did.. I removed all of them and I still have the weird
formatting. Let me clarify the situation. The first page is a cover
letter created in Arial size 11 font. While the main part of the
questionnaire plus the sub-sections are all in Times Roman size 9. How
can I preserve this formats when I use an includetext?

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Jigsatics,

Yeah, it did.. I removed all of them and I still have the weird
formatting. Let me clarify the situation. The first page is a cover
letter created in Arial size 11 font. While the main part of the
questionnaire plus the sub-sections are all in Times Roman size 9. How
can I preserve this formats when I use an includetext?

Ok, there are two issue, here. One is the \* Mergeformat switch problem.
Once that's been placed into a field, it can end up storing "weird"
formatting in the field where you can't always remove it. Safest would
be to copy the text within the field, press Ctrl+F9 to create a new pair
of field codes, paste it in, and delete the old field.

The other problem is how Word is designed to handle formatting. All text
in Word is formatted with STYLES. If you don't specify anything else,
this will be the style named "Normal". Or, you may have applied a
built-in or user-defined style. The important thing you need to know in
this case is, that Word will always apply the style definition in the
"container" document. So if the text coming through the link is
formatted with a style of the same name, it will take on the appearance
of the style as it is defined in the document where you're using
IncludeText.

You need to create a unique set of styles in the source document so that
Word will retain that formatting across the link.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

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or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Jigsatics]

You need to create a unique set of styles in the source document so

that
Word will retain that formatting across the link.

What do you mean by the source document? The main document with the
includetext statements? Or the sub-sections(the one's formatted in
times roman 9)?

 

[Francis Dion]

Hi,

You might want to investigate XpertDoc as an alternative to
IncludeText and MailMerge. XpertDoc has been specifically designed to
easily embedded If...Then...Else logic and other similar construct
into a merge project.

You can check it out at www.xpertdoc.com

Regards,

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Jigsatics,

What do you mean by the source document? The main document with the
includetext statements? Or the sub-sections(the one's formatted in
times roman 9)?

source document = document whose path is used in the IncludeText field.

Short summary: text formatted with styles of the same name will always
appear the same when combined in one document. In order to retain
formatting, text being brought in from an outside document must be
formatted with a style NAME that is not present in the target document
(the one containing the IncludeText field)

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question
or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Jigsatics]

Thanks Cindy!

It was the styles that caused the problem. Problem solved