Need help with Word 2007 mail merge. Hard to explain.

[fabricjunkie]

This may or may not be a word problem. It may be something that can be accomplish in Access.
I am doing a mail merge in word. The mail merge may produce 1 sheet or it may produce 10 sheets, depending on the amount of fields it needs to print. Example: I need to print coupons. One person may have 10 and another may have 100. The way I have been doing this, (and it is time consuming), I create an Access file with all the fields. Then I merge them into a Word doc. I have 12 coupons that will print to one sheet. The coupons with data, (all different), will print the amount on them and the fields that have no data will print VOID on them. I would like to know if there is a way to print only coupons that contain the data and the ones that have no data would just not print at all?

 

[Ranger4]

Hi & welcome to the Forum.

Have you thought of creating a Query in Access that only runs the fields that you require. In other words if the coupon had a null field (no data in it) you could get Access to exclude that field, so the Query would only have the fields of data that is required for the coupons. You could then use the mail merge in Word to finish he job.

This MS website on Access Query criteria might help you.

https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...criteria-3197228c-8684-4552-ac03-aba746fb29d8

 

[fabricjunkie]

I do have a query in ACCESS to run these. Let me try to explain further. I have to print coupons. I have set up a word doc with 12 coupons per page. In the ACCESS database I have 1000's of records. Each record has different dollar amounts and each record will have different amounts of coupons. They may have 10, 15, 50, or 100 coupons. The dollar amounts vary from $2.00 to $5.00. In the fields with no dollar amount I have a VOID. Lets say record one has 10 $2.00 coupons and 10 $5.00 coupons. That is 20 coupons total. So I would need one full sheet of coupons and then 4 coupons, on the second sheet, that will have the word VOID on them. I would like to have the voided coupons not print at all. Just a blank space. I guess I am asking, is there a way to code the doc so that if it has a void in the field, then just don't print anything. Am I making any sense?

 

[Ranger4]

Yes, you have cleared things up a bit. I gather from what you have said that you actually enter the word VOID in a field when you are updating the Access database, or you enter a dollar amount.

When you set up the query you should be able to get Access not to show the VOID entries. Open your Query in Design View & in the Criteria section under this field (that is the VOID or $ amount one) add Not Void. That should then return only those that actually have a Dollar amount.

Am I right in thinking you don't need the VOID coupons to be available for your Word mail merge.

One other question. When you enter coupon details into Access, do you have a separate entry for each coupon. So if a customer has earned 20 coupons, there are actually 20 entries for that customer, plus any VOID entries.

 

[fabricjunkie]

Right. I do not want the VOID coupons in the mail merge. But the document is designed to print 12 coupons per page. I need it to print just the coupons that have a dollar value. If it is a VOID coupon I do not want to print the coupon at all.

Yes I will have 20 entries for 20 coupons. If you know another way to do this, PLEASE let me know. It takes a lot of time to enter all this. I know very little about using code in ACCESS. I would love it if there is a way to set up an access field that say this guy has (5) $2.00 coupons and (1) $3.00 coupon and then in the mail merge it will print only (5) $2.00 coupons and (1) $3.00 coupon and the rest of the sheet is blank. Without a pot load of code. Any ideas?

 

[Ranger4]

It is difficult to advise you without actually seeing your Access database in detail.

Do you have a regular client base that get these coupons, if so you could set up Access with a list of these clients in one table & use a code for each. Then in another table you have the coupon entries applicable to each client, then you set up a relationship between these tables so information in one table is tied to information in the other.

In order to utilise the full benefits of Access you really need to learn it fully or do a training course.

Have you tried the query method that I suggested in Post #4 about using the Not VOID criteria & see what the results are. If that works then you would use that query for your mail merge.

 

[fabricjunkie]

Yes to client base. I do the two tables. One with names and addresses and the other one with the coupon amounts. Problem is because I set up the document with 12 coupons per page, it still prints the blank coupons, that is why I have to have VOID in the coupons the client is not entitled to. The coupon has an area with the dollar amount in it. So if it has no dollar amount then it prints VOID. Is there a way in word to design one coupon, then have it print the amount of coupons needed? At this point the database is not my biggest concern. I would like to streamline it at some point. It is time consuming but it works. I did leave out the fact that the coupons also have the clients name & address and other info on them. Don't know if that make any difference.

Have not worked on it yet. Will on Monday at work.

 

[Ranger4]

If you set up the Query that I have suggested, it should only return those coupons that have $ values on them. Then you will need to use that Query for your mail merge, which should prevent printing of unnecessary coupons with VOID on them.

I am not quite sure what you want to do with printing one coupon & then showing the amount of coupons needed.

It would be possible to get Access to do the whole operation if you wished. Have you thought about setting up an account type system, where each client gets a statement showing the number of coupons they have earned & the $ values, which could then be redeemed with a debit system. This is only a suggestion for your consideration.

 

[fabricjunkie]

Ok, I'll give it a try and see what I come up with. Thanks for your help. I'll let you know what happens.