Mail Merge Macro

[RAxel]

I'm curious as to how complex a macro can get. I'm making a macro for a mail merge (from the contacts in my mailbox in Outlook 2003) and getting an error. These are the steps I'm doing:

1. Tools -> Letters and Mailings -> Mail Merge
2. Click Envelope radio button
3. Click Next: Starting Document
4. Click Change document layout radio button
5. Click Envelope options...
6. Leave everything as default and click OK
7. Click Next: Select recipients
8. Click Select from Outlook contacts
9. Choose Contacts Folder... I choose the contact folder in my mailbox, then click Select All, then click OK
10. Click Next: Arrange your envelope
11. Click the middle of the envelope and then click Address Block
12. Leave it as the default and click OK
13. Click Next: Preview your envelopes
14. Click Next: Complete the merge


Now, I could end it here, but I went ahead and hit the print button and changed some settings there to make it even more automated. The place where I'm getting the error is when the <<Address Block>> appears on the screen. What is weird is that the <<Address Block>> should appear AFTER the layout has changed to envelope, but it doesn't. And the <<Address Block>> appears on the top left of the screen, not in the middle where it is supposed too.

Finally, the layout doesn't change to the correct envelope layout and I don't believe Word grabs the contacts from Outlook and that's where I believe the error occurs. Any help is appreciated.

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,

Please post your code.

Skip,

_{[red]A palindrome gone wrong?[/red]
A man, a plan, a ROOT canal...
PULLEMALL!}

 

[RAxel]

Here is the unedited code straight from the recorded macro in word 2003:

Sub ContactEnvelopeMerge()
'
' ContactEnvelopeMerge Macro
' Macro recorded 10/11/2005 by sean.axel
'
    ActiveDocument.MailMerge.MainDocumentType = wdEnvelopes
    If ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial = wdPaneNone Then
        ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPrintView
    Else
        ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdPrintView
    End If
    ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.PageFit = wdPageFitBestFit
    ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.PageFit = wdPageFitBestFit
    Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine, Count:=2
    ActiveDocument.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:= _
        wdFieldAddressBlock, Text:= _
        "\f ""<<_TITLE0_ >><<_FIRST0_>><< _LAST0_>><< _SUFFIX0_>>" & Chr(13) & "<<_COMPANY_" & Chr(13) & ">><<_STREET1_" & Chr(13) & ">><<_STREET2_" & Chr(13) & ">><<_CITY_>><<, _STATE_>><< _POSTAL_>><<" & Chr(13) & "_COUNTRY_>>"" \l 1033 \c 2 \e ""U"
    With ActiveDocument.MailMerge
        .Destination = wdSendToPrinter
        .SuppressBlankLines = True
        With .DataSource
            .FirstRecord = wdDefaultFirstRecord
            .LastRecord = wdDefaultLastRecord
        End With
        .Execute Pause:=False
    End With
End Sub

 

[RAxel]

I just ran that macro, and this time it just said "This method or property is not available because the current mail merge main document needs a data source." But what I don't understand, is that in the recording of the macro, I told it to use my mailbox contacts. I'm guessing word is having a hard time talking to outlook?

 

[RAxel]

So I understand that the macro didn't record the fact that I told it to use the contacts in my mailbox as the data source to perform the mail merge. Is there code to physically create a data source that the contacts can get written to, which is then used for the mail merge?