Word Merge with Filemaker

[Ann]

Am a PC user wanting to convert to Mac. In Word for the PC I produce a
merged document that is a directory of people that includes their contact
information and their individual pictures. The database I use is Access. I
realize I can't use Access with Word for the Mac but can use Filemaker. Is
it possible, to use the container field in Filemaker with the individual
pictures in it and have the pictures merge into the Word file? My preference
would be to have the file location of the picture specified in the Filemaker
field rather than have the picture file itself reside there. I can do this
in Word for the PC. Has anyone done this type of merge in the Mac with
Fielmaker and Word for the Mac?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I hardly know anything about Filemaker but
a. suppose you have a container field called mypicture and a
calculated text field called mypath
b. when you insert pictures to mypicture, if you always check "Store
only a reference to file", you can use a calculation in mypath to get
the whole path name and modify it so that Word can use it.

e.g. if I insert a picture such as

Macintosh HD:Users:meocuments:myimage.jpg

then set mypath to the formula

GetValue(mypicture;3)

mypath should be set to something like

size:340,480
image:myimage.jpg
imagemac:/Macintosh HD/Users/me/Documents/myimage.jpg

To extract the 3rd line with the path info., I can change the formula to

GetValue(mypicture;3)

To turn that into a path that Word recognises, I can change it to

Substitute(GetValue(mypicture;3);"imagemac:/";"file://")

Then I can connect Word to that form/table and select the mypath value
(you will probably notice that the mypicture field is not available).

As with Word on Windows, you can then use the nested field

{ INCLUDEPICTURE { MERGEFIELD mypath } }

However, you will probably be better off using macropod's construction
to ensure that you do not have to update the picture results, i.e.
something along the lines of

{ INCLUDEPICTURE { IF TRUE "{ MERGEFIELD mypath }" } }

and to ensure that the INCLUDEPIcTURE fields are removed post-merge, you
can try

{ IF { INCLUDEPICTURE { IF TRUE "{ MERGEFIELD mypath }" } } {
INCLUDEPICTURE { IF TRUE "{ MERGEFIELD mypath }" } } }

- both of those seem to work on Mac Word 2008 as well, and that probably
means they'll work on Word 2004 too.

That obviously relies on rather a lot being more consistent than I could
possibly guarantee - e.g. users always working the same way with
pictures, picture info. always occupying 3 "lines", URLs always being
imagemac: rather than (perhaps) http: etc. etc., but maybe it will give
you a useful starting point for further research.


Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk