Merging Picture with Mail Merge

[jlconlin]

I am creating a phone book/directory for my church. I have created an
Excel spreadsheet with all the information I need, including a column
which contains the path to the location of a picture (jpeg) of the
individual/family. I can get all of the fields correctly except for
the photo. This is what I have done:

{ INCLUDEPICTURE "/Users/my/path/to/{ MERGEFIELD Photo}" \* MERGEFORMAT
}

I have also tried:

{ INCLUDEPICTURE "Macintosh HD:Users:myath:to:{ MERGEFIELD Photo}" \*
MERGEFORMAT }

Neither of the above worked. I get the following when merge the data:

{ INCLUDEPICTURE "/Users/my/path/to/Picture.jpg" \* MERGEFORMAT }

or the same with ":" between the directories. I have tried updating
the fields by pressing "F9", but that didn't change anything. I am
using Word and Excel 2004 for Macintosh. I was told there are some
really great experts on this mailing list that would be able to solve
the problem. Can anyone help me?
Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[Anne Troy]

Jeremy: Perhaps you only need to STOP viewing field codes? Tools-->Options,
View tab and uncheck field codes. For Mac, it's probably
File-->Preferences... something. I forget.
************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com

 

[jlconlin]

Nope that doesn't help. Now I just get:

Error! Filename not specified.

Any other ideas?
Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[Graham Mayor]

You may need to ask in the Mac group, but if this were Windows there would
need to be double slashes in the path and you cannot use relative paths so
the drive letter would need to be defined. - but I confess to knowing
nothing about Mac filing systems.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[jlconlin]

I have asked in the Mac group, and they gave me the suggestions I
tried. But they didn't work. They told me to ask Cindy, an MVP
specializing in mail merges on this list and she would know the answer
even though I am on my Mac.
Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[Graham Mayor]

Cindy has not been dropping in so often recently.

Try the following:

In a plain document Insert > field > includepicture and insert the path and
filename you want to insert into the appropriate box. Insert the field and
toggle the display to see the construction. Use that syntax in your merge
document, substituting your mergefield for the appropriate part of the
filename.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[jlconlin]

Graham,
I did what you said and was able to see a picture. I found out you
have to escape the directory delimiters in the file path. Doing your
suggestion made me understand the format for the INCLUDEPICTURE merge.
Then I tried merging all of the pictures. In the merged document, all
of the file paths were there and when I said "Toggle Field Codes", they
all changed to a picture, but they all changed to the SAME picture.
Every picture shown was the first picture in the list. I wonder if the
INCLUDEPICTURE field doesn't get reset between entries? Does any of
this make sense?
Thanks for all your help.

Jeremy

 

[Graham Mayor]

All changing to the same picture is normal as the field conversion is a two
stage process and not automatic. Merge to a new document and then select all
Ctrl+A and update F9 to show the correct images.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[jlconlin]

Graham (and others),
Sounded like a good idea; however when I update, the pictures (of
the same person) disappear and a blank space is left. I can click on
the blank space and it acts like a picture, but it doesn't display a
picture. Does this seem as strange to you as it does for me?
Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[Graham Mayor]

I don't know about the inner workings of Mac Word but see if tools > options

view > picture placeholders is now checked. It shouldn't be! Toggle the

display with ALT+F9 to see if the correct filenames are in place.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Graham Mayor]

Just a thought.... you are not trying to constrain the pictures with text
boxes I trust? If you are, change them for table cells. Merge doesn't see
the text boxes which are in the drawing layer.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[jlconlin]

Nope. I haven't done any formatting of the picture field. I am just
trying to get it to work before I start formatting it. When(/if) I get
it to work, then I will try to format it the way I want.
Thanks,
Jeremy