Moving addresses round on mail merge labels?

[dafttart100]

I'm trying to do a mail merge between Outlook and Word. When printing, I
want to force it to write the addresses onto specific label areas to use up
old labels sheets where only one or two labels may be left. When I try to
print, nothing happens. Can you help please?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I hope your printer will work with incomplete label sheets - there's usually
a warning with the labels because the sheets can ge stuck in some printers.

Printing partial sheets isn't different in principle from printing complete
sheets: in essence, each label occupies a cell in a table. If for example
you have sheets containing 4 rows of 3 labels and you just have the last row
of 3 labels left, delete the first 3 rows of fields, and the { NEXT } field
(<<Next record>>) field from first label in the remaining row. Then complete
the merge.

However, if the different sheets have different labels left, it will be much
harder as you will probably have to merge the correct records onto each
sheet, one sheet at a time. If you have a lot of sheets, I'd try to sort
them so you can batch up each "layout" of sheet. An alternative might be to
merge to a new document and manually edit|cut and paste the labels in their
correct positions.

When I try to
print, nothing happens.

Assuming none of that makes any difference, What exactly are you looking at
when you print, and how are you initiating the print? Are you looking at the
mail merge main document, pre-merge? An output document, post-merge? Or
what?

Peter Jamieson

 

[dafttart100]

Hi Peter. Thanks for your prompt help! My printer does cope with incomplete
sheets, fortunately!

Had a bit of trouble understanding your first suggested method (Next) and
Next Record eg.

As I am using different 'left over' labels in different positions on the
remaining sheets, I have been using the cut and paste idea. All goes well,
until I ask it to print. Until then, the address sits comfortably in the
selected box, and is shown quite clearly on the screen. But when I ask it to
print, nothing comes out of the printer, and on looking at the finished sheet
subsequently, it is empty. (This is covered by the 'print' menu until the
printing is complete so you can't see it.)

I am asking it to print from 'Step 6 of 6' on the Merge menu.

Hope this makes some sense?

Regards,

Lynn

 

[Peter Jamieson]

OK, I think you are cutting/pasting too soon, so that when you actually
merge, Word is not putting the addresses in the places you expect (or
anywhere). If you are doing one sheet at a time, you may be better off
getting the document to look the way you want it, then /not/ completeing the
merge but using the file|print menu option (or just the print button on the
standard toolbar if your printer is the default printer.

The alternative is to perform the merge to an output document and move the
addresses around in that document before printing it.

Hope trying that doesn't waste too many bits of paper/label!

Peter Jamieson