Hi Patrick
Thanks for the explanation. However, I neglected to say that I was familiar with the Word mail merge using labels, and that is what I have used in the past. My objective is to skip using labels and merge directly onto the postcards, but instead of 30 labels on a page, it would be on printed i4 postcards per page, with each name appearing on only one postcard. In short, I'm having trouble making the merge in publisher with postcards work like the merge in Word with labels. If you have any clues in that regard, they would be appreciated.
Thanks gain for your efforts.
Mark
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by: patrickabPosted on 2009-02-18 at 16:45:28ID: 23676774
mlitin,
If you can do a double print (print the postcard first - 4 to a page) you could use Word mailmerge and using Excel as the database. The trick is to produce the output as labels in MSWord. This allows the repeating of the same pattern of data on one page. If you are not acquainted with mailmerge labels it can take quite a bit of getting used to as it is not intuitive. In fact MSWord appears to make it hard but after you have done it a few times it does get easier.
The stages are:
1. Prepare Excel database with column headings such as Title, Givenname, Familyname, Address1, Address2 and so on. Save and close the file.
2. In MSWord press the NewBlankDocument button. Select Tools/Letters and Mailings/MailMergeWizard/ and in the Taskpane select Labels. If the TaskPane is not visible go to View and tick Task Pane.
3. In the Task Pane press the Starting Document link
4. Press the LabelOptions link in the Task Pane
5. Select the label size that will allow you get all the data of one person onto one label - press OK
6. Press SelectRecipients/Browse and find the Excel data file. If you get it right you will see a dialogue box entitled Mail Merge Recipients - press OK
7. Press the link Arrange your labels in the Task Pane and in the next Pane select More Items
8. Making sure the cursor is in the first blank label, select and insert every field that you want in the label. Having done that press Cancel.
9. Re-arrange the fields in the FIRST label only, making sure that every field is still surrounded with <<fieldx>>. Format that one label as required.
10. In the Task Pane under the heading Replicate Labels press the Update labels button (it doesn't look like a conventional button). All the labels will then be filled with the fields as laid out in the first label. Ignore the <<Next Record>> entries and DO NOT edit any of the labels.
11. In the Task Pane press the Preview Labels link
12. If the labels look OK then you can press the Complete the Merge link in the Task Pane and then press the Edit Individual Labels link to see the result. It's at that stage you can edit the labels if you want - as it's a separate document. Save it or print it.
You will find it easier if you have the MailMerge Toolbar visible for this whole task - View/Toolbars/MailMerge as you will then be able to do most stages without using the Task Pane.
I know it's many stages but after a bit you will get used to it. I suggest you print this set of instructions so that you can refer to them whilst doing the mailmerge.You can of course save the set up and re-use it so that you only need to create the label merge once. I personally find that difficult so I just go through the routine each time - about 2 minutes - that's all.
However I would guess that MS Publisher 2007 has a mailmerge facility much like MS Word - so perhaps you can use the label printing/merging in that application.
Hope that helps
Patrick