Merging multiple images to a page

[JohnB]

Hi.

I have set up mail merge from Access to Word many times. Now I want to mail
merge images and have many (different) images on a page - a bit like labels.
In fact I've used a label Wizard in Access to produce a report containing
three rows of five images on a landscape page with the name of the image
below each one. Each image and name is a separate record in Access.

What I really want is to produce a two page mail merged document. The first
page is a letter with the usual type of merge fields inserted. The second
page would contain, say, five rows of three images with appropriate name
underneath.

By the way, I know how to merge images and I can concatenate the image and
name records in Access so that I can produce a letter to one address with
multiple associated images. The way this works at present is that images and
names appear one below the other, in a column. I just want to be able to
spread them out, like a labels layout.

Has anyone any idea how I could proceed?


Thanks, JohnB

 

[Doug Robbins]

Is the data (your so-called "usual type of merge fields") AND the filename
info for each image all in the one record? That is, you have a field for
each image that goes with an individual record.

If that is the case, just set up your mail merge document with the first
page as you want it, and on page 2, insert a table with the desired number
of rows and columns and insert an image mergefield in each cell of that
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

 

[JohnB]

Thanks Doug.

Perhaps I'd better expand. The data being merged is based on records in a
"one to many" relationship. These records are brought together in a query
that creates a number of records, each containing various fields from the
"one" side and concatenated records from the "many" side. So each record
presented to the merge would have AddressLine1, AddressLine2, Town, County,
PostCode ( the "one side") then a Name field (from the "many" side)
containing, say, three names each with carriage return and line feed
characters. This produces a merge page containing an Address at the top and
then a column of the three names, one under the other, in the body text. The
field containing the image path (ImagePathAndFile)is in the "many" side
records, along with the Name field.

I'm guessing that I will also need to concatenate the ImagePathAndFile
field, to maintain the same "one to many" relationship i.e. many images to
one address.

Does this help? Anyway, I will have a look into using a Table, but I'm not
too sure if it will work. How would the table handle three image paths
concatenated into one field? How would I separate them in the field? As I
say, the Name concatenate uses carriage return and line feed characters to
force the Names into a column in the merged document but surely that will not
work with a Table.

Thanks again for the help, JohnB

 

[Doug Robbins]

I had a suspicion that was what you were working with hence the
qualification on my response.

Word does not really have the ability to perform a "multiple items per
condition (=key field)" mailmerge.

See the "Multiple items per condition" item under the "Special merges"
section of fellow MVP Cindy Meister's website at

http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/MergFram.htm

Or, if you create a Catalog (on in Word XP and later, it's called Directory)
type mailmerge main document with the mergefields in the cells of a one row
table in the mailmerge main document with the keyfield in the first cell in
the row and then execute that merge to a new document and then run the
following macro, it will create separate tables with the records for each
key field in them. With a bit of further development, you may be able to
get it to do what you want.

' Macro to create multiple items per condition in separate tables from a
directory type mailmerge

Dim source As Document, target As Document, scat As Range, tcat As Range
Dim data As Range, stab As Table, ttab As Table
Dim i As Long, j As Long, k As Long, n As Long
Set source = ActiveDocument
Set target = Documents.Add
Set stab = source.Tables(1)
k = stab.Columns.Count
Set ttab = target.Tables.Add(Range:=Selection.Range, numrows:=1,
numcolumns:=k - 1)
Set scat = stab.Cell(1, 1).Range
scat.End = scat.End - 1
ttab.Cell(1, 1).Range = scat
j = ttab.Rows.Count
For i = 1 To stab.Rows.Count
Set tcat = ttab.Cell(j, 1).Range
tcat.End = tcat.End - 1
Set scat = stab.Cell(i, 1).Range
scat.End = scat.End - 1
If scat <> tcat Then
ttab.Rows.Add
j = ttab.Rows.Count
ttab.Cell(j, 1).Range = scat
ttab.Cell(j, 1).Range.Paragraphs(1).PageBreakBefore = True
ttab.Rows.Add
ttab.Cell(j + 1, 1).Range.Paragraphs(1).PageBreakBefore = False
For n = 2 To k
Set data = stab.Cell(i, n).Range
data.End = data.End - 1
ttab.Cell(ttab.Rows.Count, n - 1).Range = data
Next n
Else
ttab.Rows.Add
For n = 2 To k
Set data = stab.Cell(i, n).Range
data.End = data.End - 1
ttab.Cell(ttab.Rows.Count, n - 1).Range = data
Next n
End If
Next i


--
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

 

[JohnB]

Thanks Doug.

Hmmm. Lots to take in there. I'll have to spend some time looking into this.
If it looks too daunting, perhaps I'll just rely on the mail merge to produce
the first pages, with merge fields and text and use the access report to
produce the second pages, containing the images.

Thanks again, JohnB

 

[Doug Robbins]

Why not do it all in Access? That's what I would do.

--
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

 

[JohnB]

Hi Doug.

Do it all in Access? Could you expand on that?

I'm using Mail Merge from Access to produce letters, where the text needs to
be changed over time. It would be usefull to be able to include pictures in
the merge but having a separate Access report to produce the pictures would
be acceptable, if a little more awkward to collate.

Thanks, JohnB

 

[Doug Robbins]

The whole thing can be done as a report in Access.

--
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

 

[JohnB]

Hi Doug. How would Users modify the text parts, without having to go into
"design"? JohnB

 

[Doug Robbins]

I guess it's a case of the lesser of two evils.

--
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

 

[JohnB]

Yes, I suppost so. Signing off now. Thanks for your time Doug