Selective Mail Merge

[C Brandt]

Sorry for this long winded explanation.
I am trying to create a report using Word 2000 with Mail Merge. My data
source is an Excel file with around 350 records, each containing around 100
elements.

30 of those elements describe a product family, with the remaining data
detailing ordering information, etc. I have sorted the records so that they
are family oriented.

Because all records in a family share common information, I would like the
first record of a family to print an introductory table using those first 30
elements, with all subsequent records creating tables and ignoring those
first common elements

When I get to the first record of the next family, I again would like to
start a new page with the introductory table followed by table after table
of the details of each subsequent record.

I thought that in the past I had created something like this using
If-Then-Else, but when I just looked at this, it seems to pertain to text
only. Is there a way to use the IF-Then-Else and include merge fields as
well as text?



Thanks for any assistance that you could lend me.



Is there a good resource that covers the details of Mail Merge. In every
resource I could find, they only give a very rudimentary explanation.



Thanks again,



Craig

 

[Graham Mayor]

You can include *anything* in a conditional field that can be inserted in a
document. You will have to build the fields manually using CTRL+F9 for each
field boundary pair. You'll find some examples at
http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm - though nothing pertaining
to your particular requirement.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Peter Jamieson]

Word isn't really geared for this kind of thing - if you also have Access,
you might be better off doing it by linking to the data or importing it, and
creating an Access report.

However, to attempt it in Word, see the following articles:

http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/mergfaq1.htm#DBPic

(the following is the type of approach you may have used in the past)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;211303

http://www.knowhow.com/Guides/CompoundMerges/CompoundMerge.htm

Peter Jamieson

 

[C Brandt]

Graham & Peter

Thanks for the assistance. It got me past the roadblock and onward, looking
for the next roadblock.

Thanks again,
Craig