Microsoft Office Mailmerge

[Confluence]

Is it possible to change a letter once a mailmerge has been completed? The
mailmerge has been completed but now the original letter is being totally
changed. Will I have to repeat the mailmerge with the new letter or can I
delete the current letter and add the new text?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Assuming that you merged to an output document that would contain all
your letters, the problem is that the output document is not logically
connected either to the "mail merge main document" (i.e. the form
letter) or the data source used to produce it. So modifying either of
those things has no impact on the output you already produced.

You can of course edit the output document (e.g. use edit/replace to
make some changes) but it is likely to be simpler and more reliable to
do the merge again.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

 

[Confluence]

Assuming that you merged to an output document that would contain all
your letters, the problem is that the output document is not logically
connected either to the "mail merge main document" (i.e. the form
letter) or the data source used to produce it. So modifying either of
those things has no impact on the output you already produced.

You can of course edit the output document (e.g. use edit/replace to
make some changes) but it is likely to be simpler and more reliable to
do the merge again.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

Thank you very much for your prompt response. I thought that was probably
the case but I have a new boss who has a habit of changing his mind about the
content of his mailshots after they have been merged so thought it was worth
trying to find out if major alterations were possible.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[John McGhie]

If you wanted to get extremely technical, you could use an "IncludeText"
field for the content of your letter.

That field can be carried through into the merged letters intact. If you
did that, you could update the text in the reference, then update each
merged letter to import the new text.

It's a lot of fuss and bother, you need to know exactly how to do it, and
there is an element of risk that some letters won't update.

Much quicker and safer to re-educate the boss...

Always remember: "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an
emergency on mine."

However, when dealing with such bosses/customers, I find it useful to do as
Peter suggests: fully automate the merge process, so I simply have to click
one or two buttons to re-run the merge each time. It should take less than
a minute to run...

Hope this helps

Thank you very much for your prompt response. I thought that was probably
the case but I have a new boss who has a habit of changing his mind about the
content of his mailshots after they have been merged so thought it was worth
trying to find out if major alterations were possible.

Thanks again for your help.

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John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]