Mail Merge Wizard

alloneword · Newbie Joined: 10 Jul 2004 Posts: 3

The new 2.0.0 Mail Merge Wizard seems really good.

But it is completely useless to me now. I use OpenOffice to generate statistical reports. I have spread sheets, in which I have figures down in the first couple of columns. Then across the top in the 2nd row I have quite a few calculations based on these figures in the first few columns (up to FF or something like that, so there are quite a lot).

In the older OO I used Mail Merge, added the spread sheet as a data source, and printed the first record based on this mail merge to a new file. It would fill in all the statistics in the document from the 2nd row of the spreadsheet for me. But with the new wizard it has taken away the control I did have.

I am all for wizards, but 'power users' usually hate nothing more than a wizard that makes it really hard, or sometimes impossible to do something that seems really simple for them to do.

I am heading back to an older version of OO now to complete the reports I need to do, but does anyone have any tips for me? Are the old mail merge controls still available somewhere??

Thanks.

AndrewZ · Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 6:30 pm Post subject:

I didn't like the mail merge changes either. I use one data source, and I switch out its spreadsheet often.

Are you asking how to add the old Tools->Mail Merge menu option? You can do this through Tools->Customize.

alloneword · Newbie Joined: 10 Jul 2004 Posts: 3

AndrewZ · Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 7:10 pm Post subject:

You can still change the spreadsheet a data source is connected to, but it's a little different. In OpenOffice.org 2, data sources are stored in Base (.odb) files. You can create a data source by using the wizard or File->New Database then Connect to existing.

When you want to change spreadsheets, open the data source Base file (.odb). On the left, click on Tables. Right click on the table name. Then choose Databases->Connection type.

Tip: There is a quirk in 2.0.0 where OpenOffice.org does strange things when the spreadsheet is missing and you try to use or edit the data source the spreadsheet is connected to. So, don't move or delete your spreadsheet until after you link to a new spreadsheet.