Mail Merge envelopes

Writing a book, Automating Document Production - Discuss your special needs here
Post Reply
Hawkeye249
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun May 10, 2015 12:01 am

Mail Merge envelopes

Post by Hawkeye249 »

Libreoffice version 5.2.6.2

Once a year I produce and mail bills, using mail merge to produce the bills and envelopes.

2017 Bills were created fine using Calc spreadsheet and Writer template. And whatever version was then current.

2016 envelopes were fine, but have a problem with 2017.

The process runs to create 124 envelopes with addresses into a single file.
But, when I open the file I have 123 blank envelopes with only the 124th one produced as expected.

Note there is a return address in the template, but even that is not present in the file to be printed...

Ideas?
LibreOffice 4.4 with Windows 7
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: Mail Merge envelopes

Post by John_Ha »

Welcome to the forum.

Search the forum with mail merge or labels - see for example [Solved] Can't fill address labels from spreadsheet just a few posts below yours.

As a new poster you will find much useful information in the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials, the up to date Writer guide and the OOo v3.3 Writer Manual. When a pop-up window opens, click the Help button for extensive help on that function - it is often more comprehensive than the manual.

Also, please always search the forum before posting a query as the same questions (like yours) get asked again and again and again and again ...

If this solves the problem, please view your first post in this thread and click the Edit button (top right in the post) and add [Solved] in front of the subject.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
Hawkeye249
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun May 10, 2015 12:01 am

Re: Mail Merge envelopes

Post by Hawkeye249 »

Hello John,

You presumed I had not searched for answers here and on the internet, which is a bit condescending.

Note that I am a retired mainframe professional with over twenty years of experience, culminating in being the programming manager
of the third largest bank in my state.

I WAS frustrated when I posted. I'd run mail merge to produce bills and envelopes for two years before experiencing the problem.
Meaning I know how to run mail merge.

My problem remains, although I've worked around it this time.

Bob
LibreOffice 4.4 with Windows 7
User avatar
Hagar Delest
Moderator
Posts: 32628
Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2007 9:07 pm
Location: France

Re: Mail Merge envelopes

Post by Hagar Delest »

Hi Bob,

Sorry, there was no hint in your first post about what your experience was and what you had done before posting. In most cases, users don't even search, that's why we tend to have an "education" posture. We try to avoid this but sometimes after some more or less basic questions, it's easy to consider the next one all the same.

Note that it might be a problem with LO and not AOO.
LibreOffice 7.6.2.1 on Xubuntu 23.10 and 7.6.4.1 portable on Windows 10
User avatar
keme
Volunteer
Posts: 3699
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:27 am
Location: Egersund, Norway

Re: Mail Merge envelopes

Post by keme »

It seems that nobody have an idea from what you posted. Often, there is something that stares you in the face, but you can't see it if your life depended on it. As a programmer you may have experienced that with your own code, where a colleague points out what should be obvious.

My point is, the error that we can't determine from your explanation may be obvious if we have your files. At best, attach your files to a posting here.

I can understand if you don't want to post your files (billing info, perhaps customerbase or confidential data) in public. If that is the case but you would trust a single helper here to keep confidence matters safe, send a PM.

Usually we would ask to post files with sensitive info mangled (replace every character with an X). In this case I suspect that the cause is somewhere in your data, and said approach might hide that cause.
Apache OO 4.1.12 and LibreOffice 7.5, mostly on Ms Windows 10
User avatar
acknak
Moderator
Posts: 22756
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:25 am
Location: USA:NJ:E3

Re: Mail Merge envelopes

Post by acknak »

Hawkeye249 wrote:Libreoffice version 5.2.6.2
... only the 124th one produced as expected.

Note there is a return address in the template, but even that is not present in the file to be printed...
This sounds quite odd to me. Is LibO 5.2 a "fresh" release or a stable release? If it's "fresh" then you may want to try downgrading or trying AOO instead. There may be new bugs in the latest LibO releases.

Does the one that shows up in the output have the expected data from the last record? If so, that suggests that it may be a problem with positioning the text; if the text is somewhere off the page, it will leave the page blank.

You might also try selecting a record and click on the "data to fields" button—see if that works as expected.
AOO4/LO5 • Linux • Fedora 23
Post Reply