Table column widths

[DanB]

I have a mail-merge document that also includes a table filled from an
external database. I have been trying to format the columns in the table to
different lengths to accomodate a "name" a "date" and a "dollar amount".
Everything seems to work fine except that as soon as I merge to a new
document, the resulting tables have all three columns the same width. And
what's more, the table in my mail-merge template now has equal-width columns
as well. If I close the merged document and the template and then re-open
the template, voila...my columns are back to my preferred widths. I've
ensured that "automatically resize to fit contents" is turned off in my table
definition so it's got to be something else. Any ideas?

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?RGFuQg==?=,

I have a mail-merge document that also includes a table filled from an
external database. I have been trying to format the columns in the table to
different lengths to accomodate a "name" a "date" and a "dollar amount".
Everything seems to work fine except that as soon as I merge to a new
document, the resulting tables have all three columns the same width. And
what's more, the table in my mail-merge template now has equal-width columns
as well. If I close the merged document and the template and then re-open
the template, voila...my columns are back to my preferred widths. I've
ensured that "automatically resize to fit contents" is turned off in my table
definition so it's got to be something else.

Version of word? Is this table linked to outside data (a DataBase field)? If
yes, what switches (things that start with a \) does it contain? Mainly, I'm
concerned whether there's a \* Mergeformat switch in there. Also, which version
of Word do you have?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[DanB]

Yes, this document is linked to an external database. The field switches
that apply to formatting that have been included are \l "28" and \b "44".
Being new to this functionality and not being the original creator of this
document, I haven't been able to figure out what the "28" relates to. Do you
just count down 28 entries in the "table styles" list of the
Table-Auto-Format window? HELP wasn't real clear on this. I'm currently
running Office/Word 2003. Thanks for your help.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?RGFuQg==?=,

Yes, this document is linked to an external database. The field switches
that apply to formatting that have been included are \l "28" and \b "44".
Being new to this functionality and not being the original creator of this
document, I haven't been able to figure out what the "28" relates to. Do you
just count down 28 entries in the "table styles" list of the
Table-Auto-Format window? HELP wasn't real clear on this. I'm currently
running Office/Word 2003.

What about the \* Mergeformat switch? Do you find one? If not, then you need to
add this at the end of the form field in order to force Word to retain any
formatting you've applied to the table.

I'm sure the number you ask about is related to the list in the AutoFormat
dialog box, but I wouldn't swear to it being the 28th (or maybe 29th) entry in
the list. I'm inclined to say yes, but I'd actually have to take the time (which
I currently don't have) to test this extensively before I'd say that

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
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

 

[DanB]

Cindy - I added the \*MERGEFORMAT command and my results now look better but
not perfect. I'm also using the WHERE (X = Y) command and as long as only
one record from my external database "matches" and is imported per mail-merge
document, the formatting is fine. All subsequent matches per document,
however, revert back to a format where all 3 columns in the table are the
same width.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?RGFuQg==?=,

I added the \*MERGEFORMAT command and my results now look better but
not perfect. I'm also using the WHERE (X = Y) command and as long as only
one record from my external database "matches" and is imported per mail-merge
document, the formatting is fine. All subsequent matches per document,
however, revert back to a format where all 3 columns in the table are the
same width.

In that case, you may have no choice than to use a macro to reset the column
widths after the merge has completed to a new document.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
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