Can you merge with multi (parent-child) pages ?

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I have a need to create a multi-page mail merge. No problem.

Then I am informed that what the users would ideally like, for example, is to have just one letter sent to the parents, and then one detailed page for each child. So sometimes there would be one parent letter with one child detail note, no big deal.

But there will also be cases where prolific parents will get one letter for themselves and one letter for each of their childred. Which could be up to 6.

The detail is all coming via an excel spreadsheet.

Right now we get one parent, one child. So worse case senario is that we would need to throw out the additional (and unwanted) parent letters.

Is there a better way ? Wordbasic ?

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I think you could put the whole of the first page in an “If this parent name previous parent name” clause so it would only print for a new parent.

This sort of “If” clause is a Word field. You would need to bookmark the parent name so that you had something to compare with.

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k, this wasn’t my question, but more explaining please
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put the whole of the first page in an “If this parent name previous parent name” clause so it would only print for a new parent.

This sort of “If” clause is a Word field. You would need to bookmark the parent name so that you had something to compare with.

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How would I put the “whole of the first page” in one of those codes? Does that mean the document itself would be conditional? I’m not sure I follow what you meant.

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And this is the source!

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We literally have a parent-child relationship here: this is for a daycare.

There is a cover letter to the parents that list some standard daycare stuff (next parent meeting, hour changes, etc.) and then a second page that lists some specific accomplishments or areas for improvement for their child.

So the Joneses may get one “cover” letter and one “detail” letter, while the more productive Smiths may get one “cover” letter and four “detail” letters (one for each child).

What is happening now is that we print 4 sets for the Smiths and throw out the extra 3 “cover” letters. Quite a waste of paper. There has to be a better way.

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Chris, and Word Witch

It took a bit of fiddling around but here is the sample document. This is the Merge document, the next post is the source.

Please note the dummy record at the beginning is essential otherwise you lose the letter to the first parent.

The difficult part is putting fields inside fields. This involves putting in dummy data and then displaying field codes and replacing the dummy data with the field references.

You have to do the same to include a page break in an if field.

All the fields have to be entered using insert field or insert merge field. You cannot just type the curly brackets.

I suggest that rather than go through trying to recreate what I have done you turn on field codes and edit the sample. You may need to link to your source, but remember to put a dummy record in at the beginning. If you are going to sort the records by parent I would suggest a Mr AAArdvark.

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It works. I’ll grant you that.

But I have absolutely no idea how to go about duplicating it. I can’t add text to the parent and have it show up on the merged document, for example.

I will spend time over the next couple of days trying to figure that out.

Thanks.

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Hi Chris

You will need to select the whole document and press Alt-F9 to reveal field codes. Then you will see where the text is put, inside fields. You can cut and paste in these areas to include your text. Then you will need to Alt-F9 again to see what it all looks like.

If you still have problems let me know.

I would be happy to assist you if you want to send me the draft of the letter and the per-child attachment and the data source cut down to about 3 records (two parents with one and two children respectively). Email to
fmu@telstra.com

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We don’t encourage private correspondence so if that zip isn’t *too* big, it would be preferable to post it here so that *everybody* could have a look at it.

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OK Eileen. I will not ask people to send stuff direct to me again.

What Chris would be sending me would only be the data to put into my solution which is already posted. I am quite happy for him to post it here but I had thought it might not be of interest to others.

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Your instincts are valid. If it’s *huge* then it would not be a good idea to inflict it on the loungers at large.

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I have it working now. This is exactly what I was after. A touch complex, but that’s how it goes sometimes when using Micro$oft products.

Thank you!

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