Word 2002 - header record for mail merge??

[David]

Where do you specify the location of the header record in Word 2002 when
doing a mail merge? It seems to ASSUME that it is the first record in your
data file - and does not appear to allow you to specify a separate file as
the header record.

However, in an older Word pgm I used, it would let you specify whether the
header record was part of the data file or as a SEPARATE FILE. But I do not
see this choice in Word 2002. In fact, I can't find ANYTHING about the
header record in Help!

Where can I specify that the header record is a separate file? I HAVE to do
it this way because I can't get Works 7.0 to save the data (in comma
delimited format) with a header record. It merely saves the data. not the
field names. (Is there a way to save the field names as a header record in
Works?)

Thanks
Dave

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi David,

Where do you specify the location of the header record in Word 2002 when
doing a mail merge? It seems to ASSUME that it is the first record in your
data file - and does not appear to allow you to specify a separate file as
the header record.

This is still supported, but you need to use the older mail merge interface
to use it. See that topic in the Word 2002 section of my website's Mail Merge
FAQ.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

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[David]

Thanks. That is: do a Tools > Customize > Commands > All Commands > Mail
Merge Helper and drag it to the toolbar. This selection will bring up the
old Word Mail Merge helper.

Interestingly, the Mail Merge Helper command selection does NOT show up if
you select Mail Merge commands. It's only visibile under All Commands.
Strange.

I just don't understand why Word 2002 is now set to automatically ASSUME the
header record is part of the data. Why did MS 'hide' it? Especially since
Works does NOT give you the option to save the field names as a header
record when you save .csv files!

Dave

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi David,

Interestingly, the Mail Merge Helper command selection does NOT show up if
you select Mail Merge commands. It's only visibile under All Commands.

Because the "evangelists" at MS are always convinced that the new way *must*
be the best (and only) way to do things. For backwards compatibility they have
to leave the old commands in there, but they do their best to hide them

I just don't understand why Word 2002 is now set to automatically ASSUME the
header record is part of the data. Why did MS 'hide' it? Especially since
Works does NOT give you the option to save the field names as a header
record when you save .csv files!

Well, Word doesn't really "care" about what Works does. And I suppose the
people who designed the new interface were so focussed on enabling connections
to previously "unavailable" data sources such as SQL-Server and Oracle that
they forgot lots of people still use delimited text files. There are a lot of
people with old, legacy data storage (such as main frame) who still need to
use header sources.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

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