Large Graphic "Mail Merge"

[Barry S.]

I prepare a 30 page report every week and it has 20-30 1600x1200
pictures in the document.

I would love to be able to effectively do a mail merge with them.
(E.g. 1.JPG goes into a box with a box that knows that 1.JPG goes
here.)

What's the best way to do this?

Thank you.

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[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

See the "Graphics from data base" item under the "Special merges" section of
fellow MVP Cindy Meister's website at

http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/MergFram.htm


--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Barry

I prepare a 30 page report every week and it has 20-30 1600x1200
pictures in the document.

I would love to be able to effectively do a mail merge with them.
(E.g. 1.JPG goes into a box with a box that knows that 1.JPG goes
here.)

What's the best way to do this?

It sounds like a MailMerge would not be the best way (at least it isn't
straight-forward why you'd want to use one): my first idea would be to
insert the pictures as links (positioned in table cells with fixed
height/width).

HTH
Robert

 

[Barry S.]

See the "Graphics from data base" item under the "Special merges" section of
fellow MVP Cindy Meister's website at

http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/MergFram.htm

I'm reading it and I think I'm missing some things..

Like how the merge field in Word knows how to reference to a given
Field in Access..

{ IncludePicture "C:\\Data\\Pics\\{ Mergefield Signature \* upper }" }

Is "Signature" The field in the Access Database?

Thanks..

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[Barry S.]

Hi Barry


It sounds like a MailMerge would not be the best way (at least it isn't
straight-forward why you'd want to use one): my first idea would be to
insert the pictures as links (positioned in table cells with fixed
height/width).

HTH
Robert

Could you direct me to a further instruction on inserting pictures as
links?

Google doesn't seem to be directing me...

Thanks.

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[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Barry

On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 10:50:30 +0200, "Robert M. Franz (RMF)"
Could you direct me to a further instruction on inserting pictures as
links?

Google doesn't seem to be directing me...

What version of Word? In 2003 (and most probably in all three previous
versions), I have a topic "Insert Picture" in the offline help. In
there, click on "Insert a picture from a file", and also on "Show All".

That's the base information (it doesn't really tell you _how_ to do it,
though :-( ).

The actual thing to do is: Insert | Picture | From File, locate the
picture, and click on the small black triangle next to the "Insert"
button. Use "Link". This results in an INCLUDEPICTURE-link (which you
can see when you press SHIFT-F9 while the picture is selected. Now you
can read up that field in Word's help, too.

HTH
Robert

 

[Barry S.]

The actual thing to do is: Insert | Picture | From File, locate the
picture, and click on the small black triangle next to the "Insert"
button. Use "Link". This results in an INCLUDEPICTURE-link (which you
can see when you press SHIFT-F9 while the picture is selected. Now you
can read up that field in Word's help, too.

Once I've got the picture in there and Shift-F9d it, I get:

{ INCLUDEPICTURE "M:\\test\\1.JPG" \d }

When I manually update the text so 1 become 2 or 3 or 4.. It does not
change the picture. (1, 2, 3, 4.JPG all exist.)

Is there a way to manually change the link so it points to the correct
file?

Thanks.

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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Are you pressing F9 to update the field after you edit it?

Once I've got the picture in there and Shift-F9d it, I get:

{ INCLUDEPICTURE "M:\\test\\1.JPG" \d }

When I manually update the text so 1 become 2 or 3 or 4.. It does not
change the picture. (1, 2, 3, 4.JPG all exist.)

Is there a way to manually change the link so it points to the correct
file?

Thanks.

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[Barry S.]

Are you pressing F9 to update the field after you edit it?

No, but that seems to help though..

Thank you.

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[Barry S.]

No, but that seems to help though..

Cool. I now have lots of includefile fields that update properly, but
when the photos are inserted, it seems like the photos are being
cropped/cut off. Is there a way to insert the photos without any
cropping or unintended additional formatting?


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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Make sure the paragraph you're inserting them into doesn't have Exact line
spacing. If you want all the graphics to be the same height or width, put
the field in a table cell.

Cool. I now have lots of includefile fields that update properly, but
when the photos are inserted, it seems like the photos are being
cropped/cut off. Is there a way to insert the photos without any
cropping or unintended additional formatting?


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[Barry S.]

Make sure the paragraph you're inserting them into doesn't have Exact line
spacing. If you want all the graphics to be the same height or width, put
the field in a table cell.

They are going into two boxes.. 2 pictures Side by side. Initially 1
line high.. 1200x1600 format.

When inserted directly in, they are fine. When inserted via
includefile, they seem to take on a default sizing of their own. Is
there a way to "force" them to fill a cell?

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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If a picture is smaller than the designated "box," I don't think there's any
way to make it larger. My experience was with shoehorning very large photos
into smaller cells.

They are going into two boxes.. 2 pictures Side by side. Initially 1
line high.. 1200x1600 format.

When inserted directly in, they are fine. When inserted via
includefile, they seem to take on a default sizing of their own. Is
there a way to "force" them to fill a cell?

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[Barry S.]

If a picture is smaller than the designated "box," I don't think there's any
way to make it larger. My experience was with shoehorning very large photos
into smaller cells.

No, the photo seems to take on some pre-designated default size when
included as an include file field. When clicking on the box and then
inserting a photo, it's fine.

It's like using the field code is forcing some kind of formatting
change.


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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

FWIW, the field code I'm using is this:

{ INCLUDEPICTURE "C:\\Documents and Settings\\Suzanne S. Barnhill\\My
Documents\\My Pictures\\Rotary\\Member Photos\\{ IF { MERGEFIELD Photo } =
"" "No Photo" "{ MERGEFIELD Photo }" }.JPG" \d }

I'm inserting it into a table cell with exact height and preferred width.

No, the photo seems to take on some pre-designated default size when
included as an include file field. When clicking on the box and then
inserting a photo, it's fine.

It's like using the field code is forcing some kind of formatting
change.


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[jay m]

It seems to just come in as default when linked.
You format the pic for desired size, but it seems to revert when you
change the source or update it.
Maybe use a quick VBA routine to update and resize the pics?
here's my field contents:
{ INCLUDEPICTURE "C:\\Documents and Settings\\jm065225\\My
Documents\\My Pictures\\1.bmp" \* MERGEFORMAT \d }

Jay

 

[Barry S.]

It seems to just come in as default when linked.
You format the pic for desired size, but it seems to revert when you
change the source or update it.

That sounds like what is happening.

Maybe use a quick VBA routine to update and resize the pics?
here's my field contents:

Hmm, I only want them to resize to fill the table cell on a document
that gets edited every week. I suspect it retains some sort of
formatting when I do an insert picture, but I lose it when I try to do
an IncludePicture..

I'm not looking to change the actual size of the picuture.. (Eg. Not
go from 1600x1200 to 640x480) So the change is a formatting only
change. Is there some sort of VBA script that will change the
formatting only in the document?

{ INCLUDEPICTURE "C:\\Documents and Settings\\jm065225\\My
Documents\\My Pictures\\1.bmp" \* MERGEFORMAT \d }

Which is basically what I have..


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[Barry S.]

That sounds like what is happening.

Decided to record some macros tonight to see what I had..

Sub Macro1()
'
' Macro1 Macro
'
InlineShapes.AddPicture FileName:= _
"C:\test\test.JPG", LinkToFile:=True _
, SaveWithDocument:=True
End Sub

All desired formatting was retained.. Is there a way to type the VBA
directly into a table cell?

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[jay m]

Check the Word MVPs FAQ-
I know you can create a button or other control linked to a macro.
Maybe there's a better way.