Merging Spreadsheet data into a word document

[hesterb]

I'm working on a pictoral membership directory for our organization. I
have membership information entered into specific fields in Excel. I
have member photo's, right now, in my iPhoto library. I want to use
Word to create this directory and have the information from specific
fields merged into appropriate spaces in the directory. I am unsure how
to set up this directory and successfully merge the data. I'm
comfortable merging data into fields when I create mailing labels or
form letters and feel that there is a way to merge info to create this
directory. Any suggestions?

 

[CyberTaz]

You can use a 2-column by 1 row table for the Main Doc. When you access the
Data Merge Manager use the Catalog selection for Main Doc Type & the insert
the fields from the XL file into the left column. You'll have to insert the
images separately in the second column once you generate the Merge Doc. Word
can't merge data from 2 independent source files into the same merge doc (at
least not without some clever VBA to help it along), and even if it could
your iPhoto library is not a valid record source & it would be nearly
impossible to automate matching the data with the images anyway.

The alternative would be to get the data into a file format that allows
picture fields, such as FileMaker Pro (XL doesn't) and use that as the
record source for the merge. You would still have to go through the process
of inserting the pictures into the database, so you might as well insert
them into the Word catalog directly.

Don't be too quick to act on this suggestion, however, as there may be a
better solution from someone else.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Actually, it's not that bad, but what you have to do is merge the syntax of
an INCLUDEPICTURE field into the merge result.

Merge can't pass pictures, it can pass only text. However, that text can
become the syntax for an INCLUDEPICTURE field that will go an retrieve the
actual photo for you.

An INCLUDEPICTURE field looks like this: { INCLUDEPICTURE
"Johnocuments:MVP:18.pdf" \* MERGEFORMAT \d }

Create your INCLUDEPICTURE field in your main document. Within it, embed
your MERGEFIELD. In your Merge Document, create a column containing just
the file names (fully qualified with paths) for the pictures.

Run the merge, then Update Fields to suck the pictures in.

Cheers

You can use a 2-column by 1 row table for the Main Doc. When you access the
Data Merge Manager use the Catalog selection for Main Doc Type & the insert
the fields from the XL file into the left column. You'll have to insert the
images separately in the second column once you generate the Merge Doc. Word
can't merge data from 2 independent source files into the same merge doc (at
least not without some clever VBA to help it along), and even if it could
your iPhoto library is not a valid record source & it would be nearly
impossible to automate matching the data with the images anyway.

The alternative would be to get the data into a file format that allows
picture fields, such as FileMaker Pro (XL doesn't) and use that as the
record source for the merge. You would still have to go through the process
of inserting the pictures into the database, so you might as well insert
them into the Word catalog directly.

Don't be too quick to act on this suggestion, however, as there may be a
better solution from someone else.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Elliott Roper]

Actually, it's not that bad, but what you have to do is merge the syntax of
an INCLUDEPICTURE field into the merge result.

<snip>

Oh that is *cunning*. Low cunning! I'm off to play with that.
As soon as these alligators stop biting my....
NO CARRIER