Mail Merge using directory

Question

Hi,

I am trying to create a mail merge in directory format. the starting document has a few pages of text at the top and then the directory information underneath which is in a table format.

I want to be able to have three separate directories in the one document.

Heading A

Client type A list

Heading B

client type B list

Heading C

Client type C list

I have tried page break and section break but it doesn't want to play nice.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

thanks

Anna

Answer 1

You might be able to do what you want with the Many to One merge facility on the MergeTools – 20130627 Add-in that I created that you can download from the following page of my Windows Live SkyDrive:

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=5aedcb43615e886b#!/?cid=5AEDCB43615E886B!cid=5AEDCB43615E886B&id=5AEDCB43615E886B%21566

Save the file in the Word Startup folder.  In Windows XP the default location for that folder is

C:\Documents and Settings[User Name]\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP

In Windows Vista and Windows 7, it is

C:\Users[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP

When you have done that, the tab shown below will be added to the Ribbon:

One thing to note is that the field names in your data source must contain only alphanumeric characters (No @,#,$,%,&,(,), etc) and the field names must not start with a numeric character (0-9).

You may also want to download the Many to One Facility document that describes how to use that facility.

However, it may be that you would need a customized version of the add-in to produce a document of the type that you are after.

The alternative would be to use one, or a series of mail merge main documents, one for each of the Client Types, with nothing in them other that the table into which you insert the merge fields, and then to copy and paste the tables into what is now your main document with the couple of pages of text.

Answer 2

In a directory merge, all the text you have in the document body of the mail merge main document will be repeated for each record, so you can't have any text in the document body to start with (you can have text in the header or footer). And you can't combine more than one merge in a single document to start with. What you can do is create a document with the static text you want to include, then create three separate mail merge main documents to create the three types of client lists. When you have generated those lists (merged to a new document), you can insert those documents into your master document that has the introductory text and headings.