[Solved] Using Mail-merge in tables

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David12846
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Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 6:46 am

[Solved] Using Mail-merge in tables

Post by David12846 »

Greetings,

I have a spreadsheet with 100+ rows. The spreadsheet contains membership information, such as name, address, city, etc. For several years I have created labels in OpenOffice Writer using mail-merge with no problem. Lately, in addition to printing labels, I also need to print the spreadsheet as a document. If I print the spreadsheet, it is about 20+ inches wide. I decided to make a copy of the spreadsheet file and massage the data. Each row of data had two lines (For example, the city below the street address). Then I copied the data into a table in Writer so I could alter the data more (For example, "Road" became "Rd") to make the information print on a page 11" wide. Doing all that takes a lot of time.

I have used Write before using Mail-merge to make letter-size documents. To print the spreadsheet as a document (the type described above), I decided to use Writer with tables containing columns. I can add the field names from the spreadsheet into each column with no problem, but I noticed "Synchronize" is only available when making labels (Synchronize copies the mail merge code onto all the other labels). Is there a way I can use mail merge within tables in Writer and have the mail merge code perpetuate down in each table row?

David

PS - Using OpenOffice Ver 4.1.9
Last edited by MrProgrammer on Sat Jul 24, 2021 3:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Tagged ✓ [Solved]
OOo 4.1.9 on Ms Windows 7
John_Ha
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Re: Using Mail-merge in tables

Post by John_Ha »

I don't see why not. See Creating a form letter in Chapter 11 of the User Guide. Insert field_1, field_2 etc in each table cell. Synchronise doesn't come into it.

Remember you can save the empty document as a .odt file and fill it with the data later - see file.
Attachments
unequal labels.odt
(10.02 KiB) Downloaded 121 times
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.
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Villeroy
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Re: Using Mail-merge in tables

Post by Villeroy »

Open the data source window (key F4).
Right-click your registered data source which is connected to your spreadsheet and choose "Edit Database...".
A database document opens. This database document does not store any of your data. It is connected to your spreadsheet to make the spreadsheet accessible as a pseudo-database. When you open a table in this database, you see the data that are stored in your spreadsheet.
Right-click the icon of the table in question and choose "Report ...".
A report is a Writer document embedded in the database. The embedded Writer document contains a table with the table data.

For more sophisticated report layouts you may want to install the reoport builder extension.

The report builder extension is integrated in LibreOffice which is the actively maintained successor to OpenOffice.
https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/li ... penoffice/

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And finally I can offer a macro driven solution: viewtopic.php?t=81229&p=374955#p374955
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
Ubuntu 18.04 with LibreOffice 6.0, latest OpenOffice and LibreOffice
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MrProgrammer
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Re: Using Mail-merge in tables

Post by MrProgrammer »

David12846 wrote: I can add the field names from the spreadsheet into each column with no problem, but I noticed "Synchronize" is only available when making labels (Synchronize copies the mail merge code onto all the other labels). Is there a way I can use mail merge within tables in Writer and have the mail merge code perpetuate down in each table row?
Mail Merge with tables and linked, protected sections
[Solved] How to create label frames manually

If this solved your problem please go to your first post use the Edit button and add [Solved] to the start of the subject field. Select the green checkmark icon at the same time.
Mr. Programmer
AOO 4.1.7 Build 9800, MacOS 13.6.3, iMac Intel.   The locale for any menus or Calc formulas in my posts is English (USA).
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