Word 2007: can't edit recipient list

[johnthebaptist]

Office Standard 2007 on Vista Home Basic

I started a mail merge in Word with a new list of recipients. I entered
three, hit or clicked something which forced me to save the list, which I
did. I (re)opened or otherwise got back to my list to add more recipients.
Instructions at the top of the window tell me I can add names or use various
given links to manipulate the list.

But the edit button is greyed out. Where to from here?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

In Word 2007 in the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box, you should see a box
above the Edit button titled "data source". There should only be one item in
that box - probably the name of the file that contains your data. Select
that file, and the Edit button will either magically ungrey so you can use
it, or you're using a type of data source that Word cannot edit, in which
cse you'll have to do it outside Word (e.g. if it's an Excel file, you'll
need to use Excel).

If you are only working with small, simple lists with not many fields it can
still be simpler to create a Word document with a table with a header row
that contains the field names and one row per data record. In that case you
can either modify the data in the Edit Recipients dialog box, or simply open
the Word document and use the normal Word editing facilities to maintain the
data. You may find that you need to do stuff like close/re-open one or both
documents to get Word 2007 to recognise changes to the data (particularly if
you add or remove columns).

 

[johnthebaptist]

Much obliged, Peter Jamieson. You've given me plenty to work with, especially
your point about the simple list. I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[johnthebaptist]

I was able to get the Edit button working, and did change the data, but now
there's new problem.

The first "entry" in the Word list of recipients shows the headings of my
Excel source, and things get complicated from there. Where did I go wrong?

 

[johnthebaptist]

I made good progress with the Word table as a data source, Peter, got all set
to print the one page letter, then thought I'd try the "Edit individual
letter" feature (Wizard Step 6/6). Am I right in thinking this will let me
change the text of the form letter for this addressee only?

Anyway, the letter that appeared on the screen after clicking "Edit
individual letter" was not the one I wanted to change and I can't find any
way of moving off of it to the one I want to change.

More, the file I'm using as a template for the form letter ("President's
letterhead") is a two pager: page one has the letterhead; page two has a
header. And my message is only a one-pager.

How do I tell Word I want to print only page one of my template in a merge
environment?

Plus I was hoping that a Print Preview of the merge would show me the eleven
letters I want to print and then print them when I click OK or Print. It
doesn't.

If you can't handle both this and my previous post at the moment, please
deal with this one. Thanks.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

BTW I will be looking at the other problem you reported when I have a
moment. But for now...

I made good progress with the Word table as a data source, Peter, got all
set
to print the one page letter, then thought I'd try the "Edit individual
letter" feature (Wizard Step 6/6). Am I right in thinking this will let
me
change the text of the form letter for this addressee only?

Just out of interest, why are you using the Wizard in Word 2007: It seems
more complicated than simply using the options on the Mailngs tab. But maybe
you are used to the Wizard?

The "Edit individual letter" option performs the merge for all the selected
records and puts the output into a new document file. i.e. /all/ the letters
are in that file. FWIW each letter is in a separate Word section.

Anyway, the letter that appeared on the screen after clicking "Edit
individual letter" was not the one I wanted to change and I can't find any
way of moving off of it to the one I want to change.

So, what you need to do is /either/
a. use the Edit recipients box to select the one recipient you want to
produce the letter for, then use the Edit individual letter option. If you
are already doing that, then I do not know what is going wrong. /Or/
b. when you use the Edit individual letter option, you should be able to
select the current record (i.e. the one that is currently being previewed,
or a range of one or more records. Again, if you are getting the wrong one,
I'm not sure what to suggest.
b. merge all the letters to the new document, then go and find the one you
want - there are various possible ways you could do that. But if you only
actually want to print one letter, that's probably not going to be a good
way to work.

More, the file I'm using as a template for the form letter ("President's
letterhead") is a two pager: page one has the letterhead; page two has a
header. And my message is only a one-pager.

How do I tell Word I want to print only page one of my template in a merge
environment?

If you only want one page it's probably better to remove the second page
from your mail merge main document before you merge.

 

[johnthebaptist]

I just replied at some length, Peter, but I think something went wrong in the
posting process. It happened too fast for me to track.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

OK, I can't see anything in this group.

Try again next week?

 

[johnthebaptist]

Will do.

OK, I can't see anything in this group.

Try again next week?

 

[johnthebaptist]

Just out of interest, why are you using the Wizard in Word 2007: It seems

more complicated than simply using the options on the Mailngs tab. But
maybe you are used to the Wizard?

I never noticed the similarity between the Wizard and the Mailings ribbon.
The "Step-by-step" part of the Wizard is what sold me. So I tried the
Mailings ribbon working from left to right, and it works fine.

I'm probably skipping a lot from my first reply to your 12/14 post, but the
main thing I can remember is getting stuck on the page resulting from
clicking "Edit individual letter" as the last step. I can't do anything with
that page. Even when I tried to close it an obstacle arose having to do with
an "unsupported" something-or-other.

Starting the merge all over I got to a point where I could view the "Word
recipient list" and could even scroll through its records, but then something
happened which returned me to the final frozen record. This document remained
on the screen even though I could scroll through the other record numbers.

We're evidently dealing here with the "new document" you speak of with each
record in a separate section. In that case I *could* change the *text of my
form letter* to that individual without that change appearing in the text of
the other letters. But how do I open that new document?

On the "two-page" issue, I thought removing the second page with its header
would lose the header but it didn't.

Let's settle for this much for now, Peter.