Why is my merge skipping records?

[xlntgaltw68]

This happens every once in a while and I can't figure out what the problem
is. I have an Excel datasheet, all cells are filled out. I go to Word, set
up my document, insert my merge fields, and insert the 'next-record' at the
bottom of the page. They are right there in the merge recipients list with
check marks and all the data is visible, and when I toggle to view the merged
data, all records are there but when I merge to a new document or the
printer, every other one isn't showing up!!! Where are they going and why??
This is making me crazy as I have to merge each individual record to the
printer one at a time!!!

 

[Monika Krug]

Hi,

you shouldn't usually put in a {NEXT} field. Mailmerge
automatically goes to the next line of data. {NEXT} is
used when you want to merge to records into one "letter".
So if you don't have any fields after the additional
{NEXT}, this would result in every other record being
skipped.

Monika.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

If you're doing a letter type merge, you don't need a Next record field. In
essence, Word reads a record, takes the mail merge main document and
substitutes all the merge fields etc., and when it gets to the end, it moves
to the next record automatically and starts processing the mail merge main
document again. That'swhy, for example, if you are doing a label merge, you
need a next record before each label /except/ the first one.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Monika Krug]

-----Original Message-----
Hi,

you shouldn't usually put in a {NEXT} field. Mailmerge
automatically goes to the next line of data. {NEXT} is
used when you want to merge to records into one "letter".
So if you don't have any fields after the additional
{NEXT}, this would result in every other record being
skipped.

Monika.
out
what the problem
.

 

[xlntgaltw]

Thank you...I knew it was going to be something simple like that!

 

[Gary Lee]

I am trying to merge a few pages of labels. I created the main document, and
have two pages of labels, with the Next Record indicator. There are a total
of 47 labels, and for some reason, when i create the document, three
consecutive labels in the middle are missing. Everything is the same, the
data source is all correct and the records checked. Any suggestions?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Just a few thoughts:
a. which version of Word? Assuming Word 2002/2003...
b. are the records visible in "Edit Recipients" ?
c. does the data appear when you preview?
d. if you are able to add or delete records to/from your data source for
test purposes, suppose you insert a record at the beginning. Are the same
three records missing? Or is the first of them now visible, the last two
missing, and the next record missing as well? Or what?

I am trying to merge a few pages of labels. I created the main document,
and
have two pages of labels

Do you mean that your mail merge main document is a two page document? Is
there a particular reason for that (normally you can get away with one
unless you need to do double-sided stuff).

Peter Jamieson

 

[Gary Lee]

Peter: Thank you for the quick response.

I am using Word 2002 SP3. All records appear in the Edit Recipients. Not
sure what you mean by preview, but when I merge to a document, the records
are missing.

I added a "test" record to the beginning of the list, and when I merged to a
document, 3 records were still missing, but the last record that was
previously missing now appears, and the record immeidately before the one
that was previously missing is now missing.

By the way, this same problem happens whether I use a word document as the
data source, or, as I tried yesterday, exported it to an excel spreadsheet
and use that as the source.

Any more thoughts?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Following your tests I'd suggest something is wrong with the Mail Merge main
Document's formatting rather than the problem being in the data source.

I take it you can see all the field codes in all the cells (prior to
merging), even if you use ctrl-A to select the document and F9 to re-execute
the fields?

If you merge to an output document then check Word Tools|Options|View|All,
does anything re-appear? If so, do your merge fields have \*mergeformat
switches in them (use Alt-F9 to look. If so, I'd suggest that for now you
use Find/Replace to replace these switches by nothing, and try again.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Doug Robbins]

Are you saying that the mailmerge main document consists of two pages?
There should only be one page to the document and there should not be a Next
Record indicator in the first label on the page.

--
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