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guidry
General User
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Posts: 8
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 Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 12:45 am Post subject: Help! Mail Merge Wizard & frames... |
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OOo2 Writer's Mail Merge Wizard doesn't work properly while the main document has frames.
If your document is made of frames, after merging, takeing a look at the merged doc, you can only see nothing at all.
Can anyone tell me how to deal with that?
Can anyone give me a solution?
I don't want to use MS Word again, but OOo2 should be powerful enough... |
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JohnV
Administrator
Joined: 07 Mar 2003
Posts: 8979
Location: Lexinton, Kentucky, USA
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| Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 8:07 am Post subject: |
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A label "template" created with OOo's label wizard has each label inside a frame and Mail Merge works fine with them.
Anything unusual about your frames? How are they anchored? |
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guidry
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Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Posts: 8
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JohnV
Administrator
Joined: 07 Mar 2003
Posts: 8979
Location: Lexinton, Kentucky, USA
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| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 8:24 am Post subject: |
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OK, it took a while to figure this out but here's the problem and solution.
Your document consists of 3 blank paragraphs at the top and 3 frames, more or less, at the top, middle and bottom. All of these frames are anchored to the last blank paragraph.
If you open your document and do Ctrl+A to copy all and then paste into a new document you will get 3 blank paragraphs and no frames. Mail Merge is attempting to do something similar.
The sollution is to add more blank paragraphs to the doc which will drive the frames downward. Then reposition the frames which will cause them to attach to a paragraph higher on the page. Force the bottom frame, by moving to anchor "icon", to attach to a paragraph other than the last one. (It doesn't appear that the problem has to do with more that 1 frame being attached to the same paragraph but that they are attached the the last one.)
Now the Mail Merge should work but you will still get blank pages because you only have a 1 page document. A 2 page document will not do this. Solution - force a new page with Ctrl+Enter and then copy & paste page 1 to page 2. If you have an odd number of records then your last page of the merged file will simply have nothing merged into it. |
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David
Super User
Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 5668
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 1:30 pm Post subject: |
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| JohnV wrote: |
The sollution is to add more blank paragraphs to the doc which will drive the frames downward. Then reposition the frames which will cause them to attach to a paragraph higher on the page. .... |
You know, I've been here a while, and have by and large fended off complaints rather than make them, but perhaps the solution sounds a bit like this:
Stand on your left leg. Now wrap your right arm around your head and stick the baby finger in your right ear. ......
It might work to cure the hiccoughs, but should all of this really be necessary?
David. |
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guidry
General User
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 4:20 pm Post subject: JohnV, thanks for your advice |
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JohnV, It's so nice of you to give me this advice.
I'll do my best to give it a try, though the solution seems to be complicated to a novice like me.
Thank you very much.
And I hope in the future version of Writer can slove this inconvenience. |
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