ACT 8 Mail Merge from Lookup prints in RANDOM ORDER 1

[chasegroupltd]

Hello. I am running a mail merge to my laser printer from a lookup I created I am running my letter template and my envelope template separately through Write->Mail Merge->Printer->Current Lookup. My problem is this: The lookup is in alphabetical order by Company. When I print this mail merge, the output is NOT in the lookup order, it appears to be quite random.

I would like to be able to print in the order of records in my lookup so that the envelopes can be stuffed without doing a lot of manual sorting. Help!

 

[GLComputing]

There was an issue in early version of ACT! 7, but I thought it was ok in ACT! 8 (I use ACT! 9, so can't test).

You might try the work around for ACT! 7 mentioned in this knowledge base document -

http://itdomino.act.com/act.nsf/docid/13538

Regards,
Mike Lazarus
ACT! Evangelist
GL Computing, Aust

http://www.GLComputing.com.au

For ACT! by Sage and ACT! for Lotus Notes

 

[chasegroupltd]

Thank you for the tip on the knowledge base article, but it was no help. I have been doing the mail merge in the way that it outlines, and I am getting the same random results. I am using ACT 8.0.2.82. Any other ideas??

 

[GLComputing]

I have ACT! 9, so I'd like some more info and for you to test a couple of things:
ACT! 8 standard or workgroups?
Word (which version) or ACT! word processor?
Can you do a Tools | Database Maintenance | Check and Repair and see if it still happens?
Does this happen on a preview or only on direct to printer?
Can you try a sort on a different field?
Can you try a test on a different database (eg the demo)?

Regards,
Mike Lazarus
ACT! Evangelist
GL Computing, Aust

http://www.GLComputing.com.au

For ACT! by Sage and ACT! for Lotus Notes

 

[chasegroupltd]

I have a solution that has worked for me. There's no rhyme or reason to it, but it works, just thought I would let you know.

I've been doing mail merge on two templates a letter and an envelope. It's part of a mailing I am doing. When I get into the mail merge wizard, it asks me if I want to record into history, and I mark Yes for the letter and No for the envelope. I want the history to show that I printed a letter out but I didn't necessarily want the envelope to show up in the history.

So the letters come out in the right order, same as the lookup, and the envelopes do not.

Looking for variables to mess with, I tried recording a note in the history (see mail merge wizard) when I printed envelopes. And they all printed in the correct order. A very non-scientific solution to a very infuriating problem.

Have fun figuring out why it works.

BTW I run ACT for workgroups, Word 2003.

 

[GLComputing]

Thanks... it's rare for me to learn something new about ACT! - especially for a 3 year old version.

If I get the time, I'll have to test it and maybe see what causes it.

Regards,
Mike Lazarus
ACT! Evangelist
GL Computing, Aust

http://www.GLComputing.com.au

For ACT! by Sage and ACT! for Lotus Notes