Problems with last page of mail merge

[Kore]

For some ungodly reason, when I merge to a new document, the last pag
of every merge has the two text boxes at the end of the page misplaced
Sometimes the text box is moved off of the page entirely, other time
it's just moved to the left and up. All other pages of the ne
document, though, are just fine. To add to this confusion, the las
page of a mail merge sent straight to the printer turns out perfect
Howver, we can't just send it straight to printer because we'd have t
keep pressing OK at the print dialog box that pops up. As we have t
run over a hundred different merges, we really don't want to have t
sit there and approve each and every print.

What I need is to any sort of help in figuring out how to stop the tex
boxes on the last page from screwing up or to find a way to make th
SendToPrinter option work without having a print dialog box pop up a
every merge. I'm using Windows 2000, if that helps at all. Thanks i
advance! ^_

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Kore,

Win2000, but which version of Word?

Hmmm, can't say I've ever encountered anything like you describe, but I
can more or less picture it. Text boxes...

Here's something to try: In the main merge document (a copy!),
right-click the textboxes, choose the "Format" command, go to the Text
Box tab and click "Convert to Frame". Does the merge result come through
any better?

You might also try checking and updating your graphics and printer
drivers. If one of these has been damaged it could be causing the
problem.

Something else to consider would be merging an additional "empty" record
at the end and then deleting (or at least not printing) it.

I'd also test setting up a new main merge document and seeing if it
happens there, too. It's possible the main merge document is
structurally damaged.

For some ungodly reason, when I merge to a new document, the last page
of every merge has the two text boxes at the end of the page misplaced.
Sometimes the text box is moved off of the page entirely, other times
it's just moved to the left and up. All other pages of the new
document, though, are just fine. To add to this confusion, the last
page of a mail merge sent straight to the printer turns out perfect.
Howver, we can't just send it straight to printer because we'd have to
keep pressing OK at the print dialog box that pops up. As we have to
run over a hundred different merges, we really don't want to have to
sit there and approve each and every print.

What I need is to any sort of help in figuring out how to stop the text
boxes on the last page from screwing up or to find a way to make the
SendToPrinter option work without having a print dialog box pop up at
every merge. I'm using Windows 2000, if that helps at all. Thanks in
advance! ^_^

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
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[Kore]

Oops! Sorry, meant to say Word 2000 ^^;

And I have tried converting to a frame with no luck. As for making a
new main merge document, we use about twenty different main merge
documents and on each, the result is the same. Complications with
printer or computer drivers are equally unlikely since we've run the
mail merges on four different computers and sent them to three
different printers. Extremely frustrating, to say the least. We did
contemplate adding in a blank record at the end, but due to the queries
that we use and the postal software that we have to run the database
through prior to doing the mail merges, creating the blank records
could create more problems than we think it's worth :\

- Kore

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Kore,

As for making a
new main merge document, we use about twenty different main merge
documents and on each, the result is the same.

OK, my concern was document damage, but let's look at other things and
come back to this if we don't track it down elsewhere. There would still
be the outside chance that the Normal.dot from which all 20+ were created
was damaged...

We did
contemplate adding in a blank record at the end, but due to the queries
that we use and the postal software that we have to run the database
through prior to doing the mail merges, creating the blank records
could create more problems than we think it's worth

From the sound of it, the problem appears to have something to do with
the last section break in the document (the last paragraph mark)... Hmmm.
OK, I have another question for you:

When you click on the textbox frame you should see a little black anchor
in the left margin, next to the top of some paragraph or other. If you
don't see an anchor, please go to Tools/Options/View and turn on the
display of "Object anchors". Now: is the anchor for the text box next to
the very last paragraph on the page?

If it is, drag it up to another paragraph, then go to
Format/Textbox/Layout/Advanced and activate "Lock Anchor". If we're
lucky, moving the anchor out of the last paragraph mark might do the
trick.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail