"Jonathan Kaye" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected] > Harold Fuchs wrote: > >> Jonathan Kaye wrote: >>> Hi all, >>> Googled high and low and nothing even close to a solution. Here's >>> the problem. I'm using mail merge to convert data in a spreadsheet >>> into a nice report formatted the way I want. Everything is great >>> except that OOo wants to put a hard page break following every >>> record (83,000 of them) but I want the records to flow from one to >>> the other without even a line break. (Don't panic! There are line >>> breaks but they don't come at the end of every record). So what I >>> would like to do is one of the following: >>> 1. Let OO insert the page breaks and then I use a search/replace to >>> convert them all to a single space, or >>> 2. Convince mail merge somehow not to put hard page breaks at the >>> end of every record. Instead it can put whatever it wants as long >>> as I can find it using a regular expression (so a newline is fine >>> with me. But Openoffice, unlike WordPerfect (ahem ;)) makes it >>> impossible to find page breaks. >>> >>> Any solutions will be rewarded by warm thoughts directed towards the >>> genius. Thanks, >>> Jonathan >>> >> Please try the following. It works in a simple case in which I >> deliberately created a 4-page document by inserting a manual page >> break before each of lines 2, 3 & 4 of what started as a 4-line >> document. >> >> * Select the entire document except the first record (Ctrl-A >> probably). * Go to menu Format>Paragraph>Text Flow >> * Uncheck the box labelled "Insert" under the heading "Breaks" >> near the middle of the pane. >> * Click OK. >> >> You *might* end up with a blank line after each record (I did). If >> so, use the Regular Expression "^$" (without the quotes) to get rid >> of those empty lines (change all occurrences of it to the null >> string). >> > Thanks to TWayne, Uwe and Harold for your kind responses. In fact I > have found a solution (there may be others such as some of yours). > It's a bit of a hack but it beats doing it by hand. Check this link: > http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=35766 > and then scroll down to the post of May 02, 2006. I found the partial > solution to be the one that worked with one modification. I have to > delete the two \n's that mark the page break one at a time. So I > start at the top of my merged file and replace \n ($ in the search > field) by +++ as suggested in the post. Then I go back to the top and > do it again, resulting in a string of 6 +'s where the page breaks > used to be. I replace ++++++ with a space and I've got want I want. > > No go down to the last 2 posting which are much more recent. The > solution suggested by JohnV doesn't work for me. I get to the point > where I'm inserting his fields as he suggests but the Data t0 Text > icon always remains greyed out. My only choice is a mail merge which > just leads me back to the same hard return problem. If anyone > succeeds in getting that solution to work, I'd like to hear about it. > When I get a chance I'll try the other solutions and report back. > Cheers, > Jonathan
Outstanding, Jonathan! Thanks for the close-out! Maybe I should have asked you: I just uploaded a post to Harold about the same thing but with respect to Writer which is a little different than Calc, but for the life of me I didn't really see why. I suspect this will work for Writer et al too. Your solution seems to be working for me but I only went far enough to see if the Finds worked. I'm pretty sure the rest will. Funny thing: Searching for 2 newlines (\n) worked the first time I tried it, and then quit - 2 in a row were never found again. I wonder if the order changes? e.g. nl/rt/nl. I know, you said it didn't work<g>!! lol. The best way for me to recall it wouldn't work was to do it; I seem to recall my failures better than my successes. Thanks again, Twayne` --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
