How to alphabetically sort a data source

[Comprose]

Version: 2004 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel As I add new names, addresses, etc. to my Word data source using Data Merge Manager, I want to re-order them alphabetically by last name. How do I do this?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I don't think you can do this while keeping the "Data Form" visible,
because it is a "modal" dialog box, but assuming it is a Word .doc data
source, you should be able to:
a. click "View Source". This opens the .doc as an ordinary Word
document. It should contain a Word table with one column for each field.
b. You should also see the "Database" toolbar as a floating toolbar.
If not, try View->Toolbars and check the database toolbar.
c. Select the LastName column and click the button with AZ and a down
arrow.
d. Save the document. You can close it if you want.
e. click in your mail merge main document.
f. in the data Merge Manager, click the Data Source->Edit Data Source icon

Even if your mail merge data source is not actually in Word table format
(e.g. if it has more columns than Word tables allow) you should be able
to click in the column you want to sort on and use that database menu to
sort the records.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

 

[CyberTaz]

A Word data document is nothing more than a table with a column for each
field of data with the field names in the first row followed by the records
consecutively listed beginning on the second row. You can open the document
like any other & use the Table> Sort features to sort the list of records
using as many as 3 fields.

Unless you really have a burning desire to do that every time you add/delete
records, however, there really is no need to do so. Any time you do a merge
you can sort the records with step #4 in the Mail Merge Manager. The order
the records are actually stored in is irrelevant.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac