Using mail merge with multiple certificates on 1 MS Word page

[tim]

I am trying to use the mail merge function of MS Word to create gift
certificates. I have unique information like the employee name, department,
amount etc. that has to be printed on each certificate, so I set up a
template/document, and then a data file with the unique information. The
merge works well when I only have one certificate per page, but I want to
print 3 or 4 certificates per page. When I tried to add multiple
certificates on the same page (by copying the first certificate), I got 3
certificates with the same information. Is there a way to increment the
merge field, so that the data displayed will be from the next record? Any
other suggestions on how to make this work? thanks, tim

 

[Peter Jamieson]

In your mail merge main document, insert a { NEXT } field (it's the same as
a <<Next Record>> field) before each copy of your certificate layout,
/except/ the very first one.

{ NEXT } makes Word move to the next record in the data source.

For example, if your page has

certificate 1
<various certificate text and fields>
certificate 2
<various certificate text and fields>
certificate 3
<various certificate text and fields>

you need

certificate 1
<various certificate text and fields>
<<Next record>>
certificate 2
<various certificate text and fields>
<<Next record>>
certificate 3
<various certificate text and fields>

You can insert a <<Next record>> field in various ways, but if you cannot
find the relevant option in a task pane or toolbar, you can do it as
follows:
a. use ctrl-F9 to insert a pair of the special field braces that look like
this: { }
b. type NEXT between the {} to give you { NEXT }

Peter Jamieson

 

[tim]

I had gotten close by adding <<next record>> in front of the merge fields in
the document, but it kept skipping records as I went from field to field.
Now I understand why. It was going to the next record, everytime it saw
<<next record>>. I tried your solution and it seems to work. Thank you very
much!