Mail merge - using same label sheet

[PhilBreau]

Hi all,

I have a label sheet That only gets partially used. The layout of the sheet is 3 labels wide by 7 tall. I merge from an Excel spreadsheet to Word. Is there a way of printing on a specific label or range of labels. For example, i`m using a label sheet with the first 7 labels used. I can manually edit the template before the merge, but I want to do this automatically or by having a dialogue or something that will prompt where I want to start and stop printing.

Thank you,

Phil

 

[macropod]

No. You could, of course:
• modify the data source by inserting the required # of blank rows; or
• output as many unwanted live records as there are used labels,
before the first record to be merged.

Cheers
Paul Edstein
[MS MVP - Word]

 

[SkipVought]

I'd put you addresses in a proper table. Then load the sheet containing the label data, by pointing the first label to a particular address in your table, and each address thereafter as an offset from the first reference. Bottom line: the label sheet would contain all references to the table, with the appropriate offset.

 

[macropod]

Care to explain how that's going to happen in a mailmerge?

Cheers
Paul Edstein
[MS MVP - Word]

 

[SkipVought]

Duh! I failed to read the original post. Thought that a worksheet was to be printed on the labels.

So on the fly, create another list with the appropriate number of empty cells, and point the MM to that list.

 

[macropod]

So, should we put this one down to brain fade, or just another senior's moment?

Cheers
Paul Edstein
[MS MVP - Word]

 

[SkipVought]

Loosing my edge.

 

[PhilBreau]

Thanks for the replies. I get the idea of creating blank entries in the source. The problem is the word document has text in all cells of the label template with the merge fields. So if I've used the first five labels, I want to start printing on the last label of the second row - ie the 6th label. I could make 21 individual document templates, but I thought I could use a dialogue box to indicate where to start. Perhaps a macro to do the work. My problem there is how do I delete the first n of labels

 

[macropod]

Does it really matter that the Word document has text in all the labels? All that means is your printer will print the text (but nothing else) where the labels have already been used.

As for using a macro, yes, that's possible, but then you're moving away from a mailmerge.

FWIW, a completely different approach to the same problem would be to:
1. In the Labels dialog, click New Document to create a new document based on the label definition you have chosen.
2. Display table gridlines (Table Tools | Layout | Table | View Gridlines) and nonprinting characters (Ctrl+* or Home | Paragraph | Show/Hide ¶) so you can see what you're doing.
3. Delete all cells except the first. If there is a spacer column, note its width beforehand.
4. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Columns and choose More Columns...
5. In the Columns dialog, select however many labels across your label stationery had.
6. In the Spacing box, set the width to the original spacer column width or, if it had none, 0, then set the column width to your label width.
7. Change the mailmerge type to 'Directory'.
8. Run the mailmerge, sending the output to a new document.
9. After the new document has been created, insert as many empty cells as your output sheet has used labels, then print.
Note that the label output sort order will be down, then across, rather than the usual across, then down. Because of that, the approach also only works for partial sheets created this way.

Cheers
Paul Edstein
[MS MVP - Word]

 

[PhilBreau]

Thank you,

I will try your idea.

 

[PhilBreau]

I figured it out. Thanks Macropod for the blank entries idea. That did the trick. I also deleted the text that repeats on each label in the word document and put it into excel repeatedly. I used this as one of the merge fields. Works like a charm.