The mail merge system in OOWriter seems seriously flawed.
If you follow the mail merge wizard then you are fine, though very limited
in its flexibility and odd formatting.
If you use a letter wizard then you end up with fields--<Firs Name>, etc...
This should be normal, right?
Now here comes the trick. If you didn't drag and drop those fields in
directly form the database you are using, which is a non-standard
database, then you will not be able to do much with them. In other words
they won't import the data.
Follow me here....
1. File>Wizard>letter.
Create the letter of your choice with the field markers.
2. connect your database or even better create it in OOBase.
3. F4 to bring up the database in OOWriter, select the correct database
and select the correct table.
As a test make sure your table fields are named different than <Field
Name> as the letter wizard implants them into the letter.
e.g. <FieldName> or <Field_Name>
Now try and merge the database that has the field names slightly different
with your document--can't!
OK....
4. File>Templates>Address Book Source.
5. Select the table lists appropriately and click OK....
6. Now click the merge database button....you get the wizard and at the
end no names go into the template letter.
It should be working...and it doesn't...
Now to add insult to injury...
Try this.
File>Templates>Address Book Source.
Click administer source
???? where is the choice for and OOBase database??????
Apparently the programmers assume that it's easy enough to correctly
register OOBase databases, which it is, but it doesn't always work
correctly. There seems to be a little problem with the template fields
and the database fields liking each other.
Thus I've had it show that I have no tables when I did for this little
project....
I Created a new database, again, in OOBase got it recognized but can't get
it to merge, still!!!!
A very frustrating exercise in futility here!
It seems far too much time was spend on a wizard based merge and not
enough on the simple little make sure fields can be recognized from any
database and that they will go into the template correctly.
In the end it seems that your choices for mail merge are two.
1. Follow the mail merge wizard.
2. drag and drop from a database.
Do Not try the letter wizard and then try to merge you database especially
if it is not mozilla, windows, etc......God forbid that you actually did
it in OOBase.
So, in the end the letter wizard is killed by not being able to easily
merge from a database.
There seems to be a serious flaw in the system to recognize the <> fields
for merging. This makes templates rather useless when you need those
fields to be correctly recognized regardless of the database you are
using. Yes, that adds a lot of work to the end-user!
Or maybe I just smoked too much crack today. . . .
While I'm at it......
The final steps in the mail merge allow you to directly email, in the body
of the email, to multiple recipients--EXCELLENT JOB!
Now, how can I do that little final task without going through all those
steps? Since I want to make sue the fields are recognized and I have to
drag and drop from the database I'm going to use ;).........and not use
the wizard because I want to actually be able to have decent formatting.
Send only allows you to send as an attachment, thus if doing a mail merge
email you will have one long attachment instead of X number of emails.
Is there yet another hidden button or sub-menu that got lost somewhere?
Also, what's up with images not staying in the email when sent via the
mail merge wizard?
These are serious problems for anyone who wants to use OOo for any type of
business, as I am considering. However, with the amount of time I have to
spend on silly little things like this it becomes cheaper to just purchase
something that is working.
I really want to use and support OOo, but I don't have the time to spend
hours figuring out something like this when it should be very straight
forward.
And the help files blow chunks--seems like MS did them! Don't even point
in their direction for assistance. Which brings up the serious lack of
documentation or rather updated. It's really bothersome to new users who
read a tutorial to only find that the commands and buttons aren't where
they "should be" and/or don't even exist, and yes HELP didn't help.
In many ways OOo ROCKS but in a few it just drops the baby straight on its
little head!
Charles
PS....
Don't get me stated on the fact the the French have massive documentation
especially on OOBase and the English speaking community has very little
even in the way of tutorials.
See how frustrated we get with silly little things that should work ;).
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