[libreoffice-users] Re: How to change Writer form letter database connection
Le 13/10/2016 à 22:46, Gary Dale a écrit : Hi Gary, > This is absurd. The form letter should just contain the name of the > fields and let the user select which database and/or query they wants to > use. As it stands, I am apparently required to not only stick with the > same database but also keep the same query name. > Whilst I would agreed with you, and it has been one of my pet hates for a long time, the behaviour you are experiencing is inherited from StarOffice and survived all the way through Sun's and Oracle's stewardships of the OpenOffice.org project, so it is no real surprise that it is still there in LibreOffice. The "field name placeholder", as it is inserted in the document, is systematically linked to the complete path of the datasource. I do have some vague recollection however that is was easier to unlink and relink a data source in the way you want in OpenOffice.org 1.x (and indeed in StarOffice before that). This was changed in OpenOffice.org 2.x when the "new" Database module was developed (to include embedded hsqldb). The links entry in the data source configurator disappeared, never to be seen again. Alex -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: How to change Writer form letter database connection
On 12/10/16 05:33 AM, Alexander Thurgood wrote: Le 11/10/2016 à 19:45, Gary Dale a écrit : Hi Gary, In fact, I can't think of a reason for the current behaviour. Why should switching data sources do that instead of the more sensible behaviour of picking up the data from fields with the same name in the new data source? Being cynical, no doubt because that would actually be a useful and intuitive behaviour, at least insofar as the field names and field data types are the same, and LO is still in many aspects not very intuitive for the user, especially with stuff like database mailmerge. What you are looking for could be made the subject of a bug request for enhancement. From my point of view as a QAer, I'd find that a valid request (if it hasn't already been made - I haven't checked). Note that the behaviour with regard to mailmerge documents changed recently-ish from that originally present in previous iterations of LO. Previously, the Writer document which included field references only linked via a reference to the datasource. Nowadays, the Writer document includes the datasource at least where that datasource is a spreadsheet, text or CSV file (or at least, that is my understanding of it). This might be why the change you effected didn't show up until you re-opened the document. There is still some kind of inconsisten weirdness in there in some cases with regard to older Writer documents that were made before the change to integrate the datasource, but I haven't managed to nail it down yet. Perhaps someone else has. Perhaps they were thinking of allowing links to multiple data sources (I'm not sure how that would work)? Otherwise I can't see any justification to include the data source in the document. From decades of experience with form letters, I know that the office staff typically use a (frequently manually) generated list to drive the mail merge rather than a database query. It's often a spreadsheet and the staff know how to title the columns so it works. The spreadsheets are always given unique names so including the name, let alone the path, would be counterproductive. LibreOffice lets you register databases so I have a nice list to choose from that I can give meaningful names - like "2015results", "2016results", etc. for lists that I may access frequently. For most merges even registering the database would be a useless chore since they are frequently one-time lists. Anyway, just using the field names and assuming the users know what they are doing strikes me as the more reasonable approach. I'll file a "feature request" to that effect. Thanks. -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
[libreoffice-users] Re: How to change Writer form letter database connection
Le 11/10/2016 à 19:45, Gary Dale a écrit : Hi Gary, > In fact, I can't think of a reason for the current behaviour. Why should > switching data sources do that instead of the more sensible behaviour of > picking up the data from fields with the same name in the new data source? > Being cynical, no doubt because that would actually be a useful and intuitive behaviour, at least insofar as the field names and field data types are the same, and LO is still in many aspects not very intuitive for the user, especially with stuff like database mailmerge. What you are looking for could be made the subject of a bug request for enhancement. From my point of view as a QAer, I'd find that a valid request (if it hasn't already been made - I haven't checked). Note that the behaviour with regard to mailmerge documents changed recently-ish from that originally present in previous iterations of LO. Previously, the Writer document which included field references only linked via a reference to the datasource. Nowadays, the Writer document includes the datasource at least where that datasource is a spreadsheet, text or CSV file (or at least, that is my understanding of it). This might be why the change you effected didn't show up until you re-opened the document. There is still some kind of inconsisten weirdness in there in some cases with regard to older Writer documents that were made before the change to integrate the datasource, but I haven't managed to nail it down yet. Perhaps someone else has. Alex -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
