Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hi

A community organisation I do voluntary work for was to do a mailout and has the names and addresses of members in an excel (circa XP, Office 97/2003 vintage)spreadsheet.

Is there a way of pulling this into Calc and printing the names and addresses onto pages of sticky back (Avery type) labels? (they've been writing over 250 envelopes by hand )

Many thanks

Open the spreadsheet with Calc and do a Save As to .ods format. Register the new file as a data source (File > Wizards > Address Data Source).

Do File > New > Labels and the new data source should show up in the Datebase box drop down menu, same for its Table(s) and fields. On the Options tab check Synchronize and when you do New Document any edit you do to the top left (Master) label can be pass on to the other labels by clicking Synchronize.

To print click the Print icon and answer 'yes' to the 'form letter' query.

Thanks for that JohnV

I'm assuming they've been sensible and got the data set out so that each item is in a seperate column (First Name, Last Name, Number and Street, Town, etc).

Does that need the first row to have headings in it, and if so does that row have to have any special formatting?

Have you any other advice before they get too far down the track? (I'm afraid this is a case of "I know it's possible, but I've never actually done it" )

Yes the first row should have the headings(Field Names). No special formatting needed. See this excellent article for some help http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/art ... office_org. Its old but still applicable.

thomasjk wrote:Yes the first row should have the headings(Field Names). No special formatting needed. See this excellent article for some help http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/art ... office_org. Its old but still applicable.

Thanks very much Tom - that's just the sort of thing I was looking for, along with the other links it contains

There are instructions on the website in which you are asked to simply create the page, setting the names of the columns you need for your label, save the document and then merge the result. the method given to the first poster makes sense and I'll try it.

file not found.

Spreadsheet with or without header. No special formatting.
File>New>Database...
Connect to existing DB of type "Spreadsheet"
Point to the spreadsheet which contains your list.
[X] Register database
Save the database
Close and forget the database. It is just a link to your spreadsheet. Nothing has been converted, imported nor copied.
Writer menu:File>New>Labels
Follow the wizard and refer to the database.

When you print the label document, you will be asked if you are going to print a serial letter. Answer "Yes".

Still not there. I merely get a page of cards showing the field names but not their contents.

And when you hit Ctrl+P (File>Print)?

Had missed the prominent arrow in the set up dialogue to set up the database fields on the labels.

Problem solved with thanks