[Solved + Issue] Mail merge using Avery labels

[Last Chance]

Much as I like to support open source applications, I am getting to the end of my tether with the mail merge facility on Writer.

After spending hours creating a very simple address database (not the intuitive process it should be, but another problem for another forum) I tried using the mail merge facility on offer with Writer.

The label type I am using is Avery L7161 (3 across, 6 down), so I was pleasantly suprised to find a ready-made template for this. However, after this there seem too many problems to make this a workable solution: after spending further time trying to integrate fields (again, not very intuitive and, seemingly to me, overly-complex), I then find it will only print every third record (1, 4, 7, etc.) and completely ignore all others. Is it related to the 3-across format? Dunno: try as I might, I keep replicating the result.

Assuming this is a bug, which will take time to fix, then how can I use the data (as a workable solution, perferably not an export) to mail-merge the results into MS Word? There does not appear to be a usable format to export from Base.

[foxcole]

Chapter 11 of the Writer Guide describes exactly the steps you need to create mailing labels and select the records to print. You can download the whole Writer Guide or just that chapter through the link in my sig line. (The section I'm referring to is titled "Printing mailing labels." It comes before the section on using the wizard.) If that doesn't help, please tell us which step didn't work for you.

[acknak]

Don't feel too bad: it's a swamp of poorly presented features. It really does work, once you get used to it, but there are lots of opportunities for dead ends and wrong turns.

Have you read through the "Mail Merge" section of the Writer Guide? It's a good place to get a step-by-step walk though: OOo Guides

[Last Chance]

Thanks for the support and pointers. I was actually using the Help file for guidance and, as explained, did manage to output records, but only every third one. The problem wasn't creating the label template, or integrating fields from my chosen database, but printing all the records, not just a third of them.

I also didn't mention that I used to own my own software company and wrote every manual for the various products. Only a small operation, but it's something I got used to doing - thinking down to the user level. It is definitely not easy, and I'm not trying to be condescending either!

However, I donwloaded two different manuals and in both, Chapter 11 is actually:
Chapter 11: Using OpenOffice.org Math..................................424

A search for 'Printing mailing labels' doesn't reveal anything either.

A search for Mail merge did call up several threads, but it is pretty much what I've been doing (several times) and is explained pretty much the same in the Help file. I can create the darn thing - just can't output what I want!

I have got to start shipping my new book just after Christmas, or first week in January, so it is starting to get a little tight.

Rather bemused...

[acknak]

Sorry, I forgot that the Writer Guide is online now: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wik ... iter_Guide

[JohnV]

It sounds to me like you have too many Next Record fields in the labels. Open your label document and turn on View > Field Names (Ctrl+F9 will toggle it). There should only be one Next Record field in each label.

Don't forget to turn View > Field Names off when finished.

[Last Chance]

Thanks — although I couldn't see any Next Record fields, I went back and recreated the document another time. This time it worked!

Now I have a single page of labels, showing successive records, but no second page. So... why weren't new pages created automatically, until it runs out of labels? I would have expected that, and there doesn't appear to be any way to create a second page. Totally frustrating...

Seems to me there's something fundamentally wrong, or I've missed something blindingly obvious.

[JohnV]

Totally frustrating...

Don't be, you only need a single page to print your many labels.

Open the label document, click the Print icon and answer 'yes' to the 'form letter' query. The next dialog defaults to All records but you can select records if thats what you need to do.

Because you appear to have read the help for labels (which is terrible) please note that I did not mention pressing F4 or the Data to Fields icon. It's truly as simple as indicated.

[Last Chance]

Thanks again: I had followed things through several days ago to the stage where I had the names/addresses showing correctly, except every third one! But that's great.

I think many new users of OO, like myself, tend to think along conventional lines and expect operations to fall in line with currently available products (if it ain't broke, don't fix it!) and having using Works and Word to merge data before, with very few problems, I suppose I expected the same.

For the last problem - only seeing one page - I could find absolutely nothing that told me otherwise and assumed I needed to add another one. Again, this is something that could be addressed fairly easily.

The trouble is, and I'll use the word again, is that OO is not terribly intuitive, so if the developers are going to change the 'rules' make sure everyone understands it. I suppose being a highly collaborative effort does also lead to differing viewpoints, but can not always reach the best result.

But thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread as it has achieved the result!

[foxcole]

The trouble is, and I'll use the word again, is that OO is not terribly intuitive, so if the developers are going to change the 'rules' make sure everyone understands it.

This being a user-to-user forum, you're unlikely to find anyone here to whom you can direct the imperative half of that sentence.

While I fully agree that the OOo mail merge function isn't easy to use and the documentation needs improvement, but for the sake of argument I'd point out that the concept of intuitiveness is a fuzzy one at best. What criteria would you use? If you define it by how other programs work, keep in mind that what has already been designed is often no longer (if it ever was) the best way to do things. (This is not about mail merge, please understand, but only intuitiveness.) No one should propagate poor design just because that's what people learned and are accustomed to... besides, if we followed the assertion that the design should be continued because that's what people learned and therefore already know how to use, then how can improvement occur? That direction leads to a dead end, a null argument.

If you define intuitive as being obvious to the user without the need for further instructions, setting aside the argument that much of what is obvious to the user has been learned from previously set patterns, no program in the world gets that right for every user. Some get close, and some do better than others... but users vary so much in their abilities or willingness to read, to experiment, to try on their own, to think logically, to notice elements, to learn, to foresee or expect results or even to perform a basic action needed in order to get results, it's impossible with our current technologies to design a completely intuitive interface for everyone. Maybe someday, we'll have fully intuitive software: maybe someday, technologies will develop to the point where we can think of what we want, whether or not we have the vocabulary to describe it, and it happens.

But all definitions aside, I'm curious: how would you expect to execute the imperative, "make sure everyone understands it"? How would you go about educating every user and potential user about a paradigm shift? That statement assumes that the developers somehow are able know what each individual user has learned, and it puts the entire burden of education on the developers, none on the users. We all realize, don't we, that people can only understand something through learning? Well, this is a textbook example of "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." People who have knowledge and are willing to share it, do so, but the individual user is the only one who can make himself understand. Isn't that why we have documentation? Isn't that what tutorials, classes, and books are for?

And isn't that the purpose of this forum?