mail merge doc with further linked/embedded mail merge docs not playing the game

R

Rob Cowlard

Afternoon all,

I am an application developer exporting data from a
database in the form of a csv and then performing a number
of mail merges on it but I have a problem. I have set up
and tested three mail merges independently against the
same source but when I link/embed two of them into my
first main mail merge doc they become static. So when I
go from record to record in the main doc the two
linked/embedded docs do follow along and remain showing
the data for the first person in my dataset. Is it
possible to have the two linked/embedded docs driven from
the first?

If this sounds strange to you the reason that I am doing
the is that the first document is client specific but the
other two are generic and so if can get this working the
maintenance overheads should be much lower.

Thanks in advance for any advice

Rob

Word version – 2002 SP2
 
P

Peter Jamieson

1. There is only one mail merge data source per merge. However you link in
your "subdocuments", they will not have separate data sources from the main
document. However, this does not sound like the problem in your case.

2. I think you need to include your documents using INCLUDETEXT fields
rather than LINK or EMBED fields.

Peter Jamieson
 
R

Rob Cowlard

Thanks for replying Peter but I am still unsure what to do
next. If you can give me a momoent I explain further what
I am doing and it might you understand my problem better.

My main Mail Merge(MM) doc is client specific letter and
prints on headed paper via a section break, the other two
MM docs which are personalised information sheets, are
used by all clients and print on plain. The data source
used by all three is MailMergeData.csv and this is created
on the fly in a user's temp directory each time they come
to do a MM. By always naming the csv the same I can have
the data source hard coded in for the two plain paper docs
and so keep them generic. So when a client specific main
doc is created pointing at MailMergeData.csv it correctly
shows and allows a user to toggle through the results
set. However, the two information sheets always show the
data for the first record now matter which one you are on
in the letter. The only way to view the information
sheets correctly is to double click on them from the main
docs and toggle them independantly which is obviously
pants!. As the column names of MailMergeData.csv never
change I was hoping for a way for the information sheets
to referenece this data as the main doc does.... If this
is what you thought my problem was and the includetext
response was the correct one then would you be so kind as
to explain it further so that I can implement it in my
code. PS - Although this is my first foray into using
Word from a development point of view as until now I had
always considered it as one of those apps that the users
use.

Cheers and thanks again

Rob
 
P

Peter Jamieson

OK, I'm still not sure whether the INCLUDETEXT approach will work, but it is
probably worth having a go. The general idea is:
a. your client letter is the only one that needs to have the data source
attached.
b. you insert an INCLUDETEXT field for each information sheet document,
e.g.

{ INCLUDETEXT "c:\\infosheets\\sheet1.doc" }
{ INCLUDETEXT "c:\\infosheets\\sheet2.doc" }

All this does is, in effect, include the contents of sheet1.doc and
sheet2.doc in the client letter. The effect is that the user sees no links,
just the complete text, and whatever merge record is being previewed should
be reflected in all parts of the text. However, I am not sure off the top of
my head whether you will be able to arrange the sections of the complete
document so that each part of the document is printed in the correct place,
and so that you get the right headers/footers printed. At the very least you
will need to ensure that the different documents do not use the same
paragraph styles in different ways.

If that can't be made to work, I suspect it will be difficult to solve this
problem in Word because you will, I think, end up needing to coordinate the
handling of three separate documents.

Peter Jamieson
 

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