Mail merge - how to drag fields from spreadsheet?

[rlindau]

I'm attempting to add various cells from an OO 2.01 Calc spreadsheet to a mail merge document - the address block in one place, and various other cells (from the same record / row) scattered about in other places.

I see JohnV's response to what appears a similar query...

[quote]

...While writing the letter press F4, open your db table, then drag and drop the field names into the letter where you want them.

When you do Mail Merge you can just go directly from item 1 to item 8 (skipping the Address business) and save all merged letters to a single file which you can edit further if you like....

[/quote]

My question - Since I'm using a spreadsheet (and not a db table) as the source of my address and other information, can I do something similar? I don't see a mechanism for dragging my field names (first row of the spreadsheet) onto my letter.

Thanks!
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Rob Lindauer

[rlindau]

Subsequently to posting my question above, I did find the following "how to" on using a CALC spreadsheet as a source for mail merge - I'll give it a try

http://documentation.openoffice.org/HOW_TO/word_processing/writer2_EN.html
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Rob Lindauer

[jeanweber]

This chapter from the Writer Guide might help too:
Using Mail Merge,
http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/oooauthors2/0211WG-UsingMailMerge.pdf

The new Mail Merge wizard in OOo 2.0+ makes this all very easy, though you can still do it without using the wizard.
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Regards, Jean Hollis Weber
Get free PDFs of OOo user guides from http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/
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[howard]

I think the "HOW TO" you refer to is for the older 1.1.x versions.

I stumbled on a solution to this in OOo2.0 by trial and error. In writer go Edit>Exchange databases and you will get a dialogue box indicating which databases are linked. Then select "browse" and find your spreadsheet, select it and it's linked in, then F4 will enable you to bring up the table you want. You can drag the column titles into your document from there. Selecting a row and clicking on the "Data to Fields" icon will put the entries in the right place - or if you try to print, it spots that you have fields and asks you if you want to do a mail merge.

I've just checked most of this on the beta 1.9.??? version on my Linux box, and earlier I used it to print all my Christmas envelopes on 2.0.1 on an XP.

As far as I can see this method does not link to the actual spreadsheet, but creates a new database from it and links to that - so you have to delete the link and reconnect if you edit the spreadsheet. (In XP these new odb files appeared by default in "My Documents", not sure where the Linux version puts them.) Trying to link it in directly from the dialogue you get from "Administrate databases" (horrible English!) only allows existing .obd files, the Exchange databases route creates one!

This is a bit sketchy I know, I've assumed that you have some idea how this all works. Hope it helps.
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Howard
3.41 (Vanilla) on various versions of PCLinuxOS and XP Home (hardly ever used!)

[davidlandin]

Does anyone know how to remove existing (no longer needed) available databases from the Exchange database list??

David Landin

[howard]

David,

You have to go Tools>options>OOo Base>Databases to de-register a link. You can register here too, but only genuine databases, not spreadsheets.

I was wrong in some of my interpretations above. The new .odb file created is not an independent full file, but a filter that points to the spreadsheet so that it appears like a database. You can change data in the spreadsheet - but I think it's a good idea to close it before you try to access it again.
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Howard
3.41 (Vanilla) on various versions of PCLinuxOS and XP Home (hardly ever used!)

[davidlandin]

Thanks Howard - it worked! I had no idea where to look to remove these links. So I appreciate your lightning fast help!

David Landin