Multiple Merged Addresses on One Page

[DolfnJudy]

I'm trying to print merged postcards which are 2 up. That is they are 8.5" x
5.5" with two on a page. I want to "nest" the address around the text.
Think of it as a 2x2 matrix with text in the upper and left halves. The
merged address goes in the lower right quarter. Spacing is varied on the
left half so inserting merged fields or using a table doesn't work.

I haven't figured out how to either get two sequential cards on a page or
how to merge the data with the existing text. Avery labels are my current
work around. That's fine for low volumes but won't do for big production.

The questions are:
1/ How to get two sequential merge documents on one printed page?
2/ How to insert merge data into only the lower right quadrant?

 

[Doug Robbins]

Tables should work in this instance (at least as far as positioning the
address is, but there could be an issue with getting the text to flow from
the left side to the upper right side) If you put a table inside a table,
you can set the text wrapping for the inner table to around and drag it to
the bottom right hand corner, but your text is going to flow accross the top
and then down the left side of the inner table rather than down the left
side and then down the right side - newspaper style.

To get two records to a page, you put a <<Next Record>> field before the
first mergefield in the second set of mergefields on the page.

You would probably be best to start with a label template that has two
labels per page (a shipping label is it most likely to be)

--
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

 

[Peter Jamieson]

OK, I am still struggling with your layout requirement - I am sure it is
very clear to you and perhaps others here, but I can't get it clear in my
head. Can you elaborate?

My current understanding is that you are probably using a U.S. letter-sized
page, portrait orientation, with cards like this, where each digit
represents a rectangle 1.625in wide and 1.1in high:

11111111
11111111
11111111
11111111
11111111
22222222
22222222
22222222
22222222
22222222

But question no. 1 is whether or not you need to print on both sides of
these cards. My understanding is that one side is pre-printed and only one
side needs printing, but please confirm/deny.

I want to "nest" the address around the text.

Think of it as a 2x2 matrix with text in the upper and left halves.
The merged address goes in the lower right quarter.

OK, I couldn't resolve these two descriptions. At the moment I am assuming
that each card can be seen as a 2x2 matrix, and maybe you want something
like the following, where "1" is card 1 text, "a" is card 1 address, "2" is
card 2 text and "b" is card 2 address:

11111111
11111111
111aaaaa
111aaaaa
111aaaaa
22222222
22222222
222bbbbb
222bbbbb
222bbbbb

Or maybe you meant something else?

Spacing is varied on the
left half so inserting merged fields or using a table doesn't work.

OK, I /think/ what you need is as follows, assuming you have fixed text for
each card.

Create the fixed text for card 1. make a copy below for card 2. Ensure there
is at least one blank paragraph between the two copies. Put a { NEXT }
field (ctrl-F9 for the {} and type NEXT between them in the blank paragraph

Use Tools|Customize|Commands to select Category "Insert" and drag
"Horizontal Frame" to a toolbar. These "frames" are the old Word frames
which were the predecessors of Word text boxes. They are not HTML frames.
You might be able to use text boxes instead but let's stick with this route
for now.

Click in the text for the first card, then insert a frame where you need the
address to be for the first postcard on the page. Insert the address fields
you need.

Click in the text for the second card ,then repeat frame/address field
insertion.

Try merging to a new document to see if you are getting approximately the
results you need. If you are, fine-tune the layout as necessary.

That's fine for low volumes but won't do for big production.

IME whatever you do, you will need to do performance testing for large
volumes, particularly considering that Word mailmerge does its entire
printer output in a single print job (i.e. Word does not use one print job
per data source record, or per page, or anything convenient like that).

Peter Jamieson