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Excel merge to MULTIPLE Word documents

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RP1America

Technical User
Aug 17, 2009
221
US
I am creating an Excel database of over 250 products. Each has their own price which changes quarterly. Each also has other varying discriptors (name, type, etc.). EVERY product will end up with its own unique letter. The letters are similar in layout, however, the catch is that depending on the product...some paragraphs may come or go, and some tables may come or go. And with some products, where their letters may indeed share a paragraph, dollar amounts or percentage amounts may vary within the paragraph (i.e. I cannot place a mergefield within a mergefield).

This would all be so simple if MS Word would simply capture MS Excel's text formatting when merging data. Then, I could simply create an entire paragraph of text per product row in Excel, create a Word template that is nothing more than merge fields, and merge it to Word (basically creating the entire letter content from a row in Excel).

Another "ideal" option would be if somehow each product's template letter were somehow stored within the Excel database and you could complete a merge of each row's data into each row's individual (and unique) letter. Rather than only being able to merge data into a single Word document.

I would be willing to take all 250+ letters and simply place merge fields where the true variables (price/percentage) would go, yet still I do not know Excel to merge into completely separate Word documents.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!

Note: I am working with MS Office 2007.
 



Hi,

I do not know Excel to merge into completely separate Word documents.
Excel does not merge into anything.

MS Word merges Excel into a document.

I think that your idea to associate the documentID with each product is probably going to be the simplest. Then simply FILTER the appropriate documentID in the MailMerge Wizard and MERGE.

Skip,

[glasses]Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE![tongue]
 
Excel does not merge into anything.

MS Word merges Excel into a document.

If Excel does not merge into anything, then how can MS Word merge Excel into a document. [surprise]

One smart@$$ response deserves another! [thumbsup2]

I cannot simply filter per "documentID". Seems like you are refering to merging ONE document at a time? This does not help. EACH and EVERY Word document is different.

Scenario: Paragraph "x" may or may not go in the letter, depending on what the product is. However, paragraph "x" does go with some letters...yet the variable values within those paragraphs may differ. I cannot insert a mergefield (i.e. variable value) into another merge field (i.e. paragraph "x").
 
And with your response, I should let you know, as a first time poster, that Skip (who has helped 10's of thousands of people on this site) was trying to educate you that the Excel application does not merge, but rather the Word application merges excel files. *put whatever emoticon you wish here*

[Blue]Blue[/Blue] [Dragon]

If I wasn't Blue, I would just be a Dragon...
 



So you are implying that each of your products needs a unique document? It seemd to me that that is what you were musing, when you stated, "each product's template letter were somehow stored within the Excel database" that there might be families of templates that miht have enough similarity to use some of the native IF..THEN..ELSE logic in MainMerge.

Also, please explain how, with the row formatting you could be "creating the entire letter content from a row in Excel" would work where the individual data elements would NOT work?

Note that Excel does NOT have native capability to PROJECT a merge to any other application. The MS Word application with it's native Merge features, does have the capability to GET data from Excel, MS Access, MS Word tables, text files and other databases like Oracle or BD2 via ODBC.

Skip,

[glasses]Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE![tongue]
 
Let me first start by apologizing if I came across rude in my previous response. I whole-heartedly did not have any malicious intent. I only intended it jokingly.

Secondly, it seems that I have a lot more research to do prior to seeking assistance here. I can see that I need to be more informed and have a better understanding of my "question", rather than being so vague.

Thank you for your responses Skip, I'll be back when I feel that I can ask a more educated and precise question.

Thanks!
RP
 


RP,

Appreciate you candor and desire to be diligent.

Post back when you have your thoughts laser sharp.

Skip,

[glasses]Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE![tongue]
 
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