sections instead of pages? how to print?

[KarenClench]

I am merging up to 400 records with a main document, to a new document
automatically via a macro. When we print the merged file "Form Letters1", we
specify, first page to tray 1 (letterhead), 2nd page from tray 2. But only
the first page of the entire merged file prints on letterhead, all the
subsequent pages are using tray 2. We have managed a work-around for today,
print odd pages only, select tray 1. Then print again, even pages only,
select tray 2, print. Then manually put the sets together.
I see that the merged document is one long document with each of the
individual 'letters' separated by a section break. So if I have two records
to merge, I see "page 1, section 1" 1/4, "page 1, section 2" 2/4.

I am researching the forum and see that I can write a macro to change the
behaviour to individual merge letters. Is this my best option? Or are there
setting in the Page Setup that I could manually select at printing time to
achieve the correct paper tray selections, knowing that I have section breaks?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

In theory Word ought to get this right, but it seems to depend on the print
driver whether it actually works or not. If you can't make it work, I think
the macro that performs one merge per data source record is a good way to go
as long as it suits your situation (and of course you need to test). For
example, if you go that route and are using a shared printer, you'll find
that each output document may be interleaved with other jobs, whereas in a
"true" merge to printer the printout is in a single job which should all be
printed together.

Peter Jamieson

 

[KarenClench]

In other threads about this topic, this macro is provided for printing.

Dim i As Long
With ActiveDocument
For i = 1 To .Sections.Count
.PrintOut Range:=wdPrintFromTo, From:="s" & i, To:="s" & i
Next i
End With

This is great, except but I don't want it to automatically go to a printer.
This macro will not work as-is for my purposes, as the user must have the
merged document, then select the printer from the network and the paper trays
for that printer. Can you tell me how to change this macro so it reformats
the merged document only, without sending it directly to the printer So after
reformatting, the user selects the network printer and it's settings, the
user presses print. Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

1. In theory, Word lets you specify a source paper tray for
a. the first page in each section of a document
b the subsequent pages in each section of a document.

In other words, if you have a document with two sections 1 and 2, with pages
1:1-1:3 and 2:1-2:5 respectively, you could in theory tell Word to output
a. Section 1, page 1, using paper tray Z
b. Section 1, pages 2-3, using paper tray Y
c. Section 2, page 1, using paper tray X
d. Section 2, pages 2-5, using paper tray W

Experiment A
Forgetting about mailmerge altogether, you should be able to set up a test
document with multiple sections and multiple pages per section that lets you
examine what your Word+printer driver+printer does with this kind of
document.

If your printer+printer driver deals with all this stuff as you might hope,
there is in theory some chance that mailmerge will also do what you need.

Experiment B
Try outputting your mailmerge to a new document, and examine whether each
section's first page and subsequent pages are associated with the printer
tray you expect.

If Experiment A performs as you expect, but Experiment B does not, I can
only assume that mailmerge does something that confuses Word. But my guess
is that neither Experiment A nor Experiment B does as you want. If that is
so,
a. there's a case for contacting the author of your printer driver
b. using the "one merge per record in the data source" approach I've
mentioned before is probably the best approach, even though I am sure it
isn't what you wanted.

Sorry this has ended in a lot of "ifs and buts"!

Peter Jamieson