trying to get Word tables into Publisher

[Julia]

I am taking over the job of finishing a school directory from someone that
used Word to input the student data. She put only ten students on a page and
I need to change that to fit more students on a page because the directory
has become too large.

Each student entry is taking up 3 lines in the table; each line has 3 fields
<student name><phone><street addr>
<dad name><dad phone><city zip>
<mom name><mom phone><family email>

In lines 2 and 3 in each entry, the columns are aligned. But in the first
line, the student name field is longer than the dad name and mom name
fields. In other words, the table does not have 3 even columns; every third
line has columns different from the other two lines.

I have copied the Word tables into my Publisher (2003) document - each page
has one table. I can resize each table to allow for more entries on a page.
But when I copy and paste the entries I have two problems.

1. In the first line that is being pasted, I don't get <student
name><phone><street addr>, but <student name><student name><street addr> - I
have to remove the second occurance of the name and type the phone number by
hand.

2. When I add additional blank rows to a table, the new rows have all their
columns lined up, but I need the <student name> field to be longer than <dad
name> or <mom name>.

Last year when I did this job, I used Excel to input the student data and
then did a catalog merge. I tried putting the Word table into Excel, but
then each entry is still 3 lines and I don't know how to get all of data for
one student into one line (without a lot of cutting and pasting) for the
merge; I know just a little about both Word and Excel.

Any help that anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.

Julia Skiles

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Is there some special reason you're doing this in Publisher instead of
leaving it in Word?

I would redo the merge (called "directory" in Word 2003) using whatever
different metrics (margins, spacing, point size, etc.) you were planning to
use to get more records on a page in Publisher. I also wouldn't use a table,
given that you need uneven columns; I'd use tabs instead, since none of the
data (apparently) runs to more than one line.

In any case, if there's some reason you need to do it in Publisher, I
believe it's possible to create mail merges there, too. I see you've
cross-posted to the Publisher NG, so perhaps someone there can advise you
better.

 

[Julia]

I'm using Publisher because that's what I am most comfortable with. I had
done the directory the previous 2 years so much of the formatting is already
done. I am finishing the project now because the woman that was going to do
it found it overwhelming and said she couldn't finish. I don't know her Word
expertise, but she chose the table format.

Julia

 

[Mary Sauer]

Directories are easy to make with Publisher's catalog merge. You can use the
data you have created in Word.
Mail and catalog merge
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/CH062524751033.aspx