[AccessD] Word merge document

Hi John,

I had indeed forgotten the part about the document being created outside your control.

However, to try to answer your question regarding copying the tab settings for rulers.  Yes you can but it's a little weird, of course.

First setting up the tabs:

You set up a paragraph, as you guessed, by entering the label - tab - first merge field - tab - next label - tab next merge field etc., but just before you do that, click on the ruler in the approximate places where you want the tab stops. Then after entering the text and merge field data you can drag the tab indicators around on the ruler to get them into the exact positions you want. The text you entered will move around to match the new tab positions.

To copy those ruler settings you now need to click the little 'paragraph' tool (¶) on the toolbar (or use the menus: Tools/Options/View Tab - check the 'All' check box [in the Formatting Marks] area.). That will result in visible indicators of the tabs in the text (arrows instead of white space) and the end of paragraph marker, which looks like this ¶.

So what you then do is highlight the '¶' symbol at the end of the paragraph and copy it. Then highlight the paragraph marker of another paragraph and paste into it. That has the effect of copying the ruler to the other paragraph. However, it does not put any tabs into the text, you have to do that by hand, but the position of the tab markers will now match the first paragraph exactly.

So it's all down to allowing enough white space for the merged data, AFAIKS 

Lambert

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2010 11:53 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Word merge document

Lambert,

I thought I had mentioned, but if not I will say it again, I am not defining the document from scratch.  I was handed an existing two page document, complete with English and Spanish translations and asked to do a merge such that the document looks "exactly" like the word document handed to me.

The user designed the document, mailed it out to 50 people, and wants my merged document to look as close as possible to the one that she mailed out.

If I were doing this from scratch, I would NOT use word to do a merge (for obvious reasons).

I am not a Word afficianado, and I really wasn't aware that the tabs could be changed within a paragraph.  THAT is the piece of information that I was missing and which makes your suggestion
(possibly) workable.  Understanding that, I will give this another go using your suggestion and setting the tab ruler as needed where needed.

Before I go wasting another 5 hours...

I am setting the tab ruler such that there is a tab position at the beginning of each "label" and at the beginning of each merge field correct?  Insert the first (beginning of line) label - tab - first merge field - tab - next label - tab next merge field etc?  That sounds workable.

Can the tab setting be copied and pasted into a new location?  IOW, there are three "sets" of child information, three merge lines per set.  If I set the tabs for the first set can I copy that info and copy it into the next set?

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com


Heenan, Lambert wrote:
> Why would that be? If you have to design the document from scratch then why not go ahead and build it with all the tabs in the right place to begin with? Tabs are indeed defined by the tab ruler, *but* for each document, and each paragraph, and even each line within a paragraph you can decide what the tab ruler looks like. How many tabs, where they are and what type (left or right justified, decimal tabs etc). To position a tab on the ruler just drag it left or right. To remove it just drag it down.
> 
> Correct me if I'm wrong but the goal is that for any given instance of the printed document you want the data in the merge fields and the static text that follows it on the same line to be in the same positions. It seems to me that building the template document with appropriately generous spaces between tabs would do the trick.
> 
> Just my 2 cents worth.
> 
> Lambert

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