Mail Merge with address labels (2007)

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I am helping a friend, who is a school secretary, to set up a sheet of address labels using Mail Merge. She needs to put the last name, first name and the month. Basically, we have been able to set up the address labels properly. However, two questions have arisen:

1. She would like to put the names of the principal and the two assistant principals at the very beginning. The Recipients List will sort in ascending or descending order. However, is there a way to edit the Recipients List so that it begins with these three names, even if they are not in alphabetical order, and then continue with the rest of the names in proper alphabetical order?
2. She needs to print out a new list every month. From what I can see, there is no way to change the months on the Recipients List unless she is willing to do this for each entry, and there are close to one hundred entries. I have advised her to use the Merge to New Document feature and then make the change from there. (Control F–Find and Replace) Is there a way to make this change on the Recipients List that I am not aware of?

Thank you very much.
Alan Silberlight

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1. You can add an extra field (column) to the recipients list and enter 1 for the principal and the assistants, and 2 for the other names. Sort on this column, then on last name.

2. You should be able to edit the recipients list directly. What kind of list is it? A Word document, or an Excel worksheet, or an Access table?

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Thank you for responding. I don’t understand the steps you are referring to for adding an extra field. It might be better if I send you a Recipients List that I created. Is it possible for you to show me the changes I must make so that the three administrators are at the top of the list? (You can choose any three names.) Also, my practice list is 324 kb. Is there a way I can send it to you?
The Recipients List was made directly through Word.(Mailings>Select Recipients>Type New List) From what I can see, in order to edit the list to change the month she would have to do this almost one hundred separate times.I am aware that even though this list was made in Word, it can be opened and edited in Access through Find and Replace. However, I do not believe she has Access on her computer. Therefore, she would have to edit it in Word and I do not see a quick way to do it.
Thank you very much.
Alan Silberlight

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If you zip the recipients list, is the zip file small enough?

If not, or if it contains private info, send me a PM and we’ll work out something.

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I tried zipping it…hope this works. There is no private information on the list. Thanks again

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Unfortunately, I get the message shown below when I try to initiate a mail merge with this data file, or when I try to open it in Access 2003, so perhaps it’s actually an Access 2007 database.

Hopefully someone with Access 2007 will be able to help.

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I re-saved it as a 2003 database and zipped that. Hope this helps. Thanks again.
Alan

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I have opened the table in design view and added a column named Priority, of type Number (Long Integer).
I saved the table, then opened it in datasheet view, and entered 1 in three random records, and 2 in the rest.
I also exported the table to an Excel worksheet.

See the files in the attached zip file. I’d recommend using the Excel sheet as data source because it can be edited without having Access installed.

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Thank you very much for doing this for me. I’m still quite confused because I would not know how to proceed on a step by step basis. I do understand that this can be edited using Excel. Also, I assume that you opened the database in Excel using Open>With. Then you added the priorities. When I used the Excel spreadsheet in Word it listed the priorities as if they would also be printed out. I’d just like to go back to my 2 questions, especially the first:
She would like to put the names of the principal and the two assistant principals at the very beginning. The Recipients List will sort in ascending or descending order. However, is there a way to edit the Recipients List in Word so that it begins with these three names, even if they are not in alphabetical order, and then continue with the rest of the names in proper alphabetical order?
I know that you answered that question but I am confused about the step by step instructions I would have to follow.
Thank you again for taking all this time.
Alan

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I didn’t open the database in Excel, I opened it in Access, and I exported the table to an Excel workbook.
I described the steps I took to add a column to the table before exporting it.

The modified table in the Access database and the Excel worksheet do exactly what your friend wants. Even if the records are not in the desired order, she can specify the sort order in the Mail Merge wizard in Word.

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BTW, if you (or someone else who has Access 2007) can open the database, you can copy or export the table to an Excel worksheet or a table in a Word document. Your friend can use that as data source for the mail merge instead of the database, and it would be very easy to edit the data in Excel or Word, using Edit | Replace etc.

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