[AccessD] Mail Merge

I haven't done this since A97, so I haven't anything laying around.
Then I was sending the text file out and triggering a merge to WinFax to
send out hundreds of Faxes confirning event registrations.  What I did
was create a dummy text file of the right size and shape and name and
hook the Word template document to it as a datasource.  Then all I had
to do was export a textfile to the same filename and location after
killing the original and then trigger the merge from VBA code.   There
wasn't any need to import it because I was simply opening a tab
delimited text file, which automatically was interpreted as a table.  In
that version, I had a separate header document to define the field
names, but I'm fuzzy on the details after all this time and several
later versions of Word and Access.

Charlotte Foust



-----Original Message-----
From: John Colby [mailto:jcolby at colbyconsulting.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 12:32 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Mail Merge


So you have a piece of code VB macro) that opens the file and imports
it? Access pulls the data and generates the text file?

John W. Colby
www.colbyconsulting.com

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Charlotte
Foust
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 3:44 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Mail Merge


That's the approach I've always used as well.  It isn't quite so bad in
OXP, but there's just too much overhead when both Word and Access have
to be considered at once.  The other advantage to the text file
approach, is that you can go back and redo it if there was a problem and
you don't have to incur the overhead of a query since the source is
static.

Charlotte Foust

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Capistrant [mailto:scapistrant at symphonyinfo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 10:45 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Mail Merge


If you do the pull method, I don't recommend having the Word document
look to a query.  There is an extra layer involved when negotiating into
MDB or MDE that adds what I consider to be a lot of time, plus possibly
a layer of security.  The approach we prefer at our shop is to have your
database output a text file with a standard name ("SelectedContacts.txt)
to a standard folder (like "c:\temp" or the application's install
folder).  All mail merge documents are trained to look to this file, and
the speed is MUCH faster for both connecting and merging.  Plus this
gives the you the added benefit of being able to send this file to
printing vendors if you have specialty mailings.  And the file can be
opened in Excel for other kinds of merging and analysis uses as well.

Steve Capistrant
Symphony Information Services
scapistrant at symphonyinfo.com
www.symphonyinfo.com



-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of John Colby
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 8:27 AM
To: AccessD
Subject: [AccessD] Mail Merge


Folks,

I have been looking at a push method of mail merge were an access class
pushes data into the doc at bookmarks.  It is my understanding that
there is also a pull method where the document knows what query it needs
to use to get data from Access and where to put the data in the
document.  Is that method easy to set up for a given document?  Any
online references for doing this?  I need to get a handful of mail merge
docs set up quickly for a customer.

John W. Colby
www.colbyconsulting.com


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