I think I've figured out a workaround - There is a heading line that starts the second section; if I put the section break after this heading line, then the # of pages in the first section would be the page number that I am looking for (the page which contains this header). Technically, it is part of the second section, but if it works properly then this may be the best solution.



Plus, the first section is 1 column, and the second section is 2 columns, and that would allow the header to span the columns, which is probably preferable as well.

Thanks again for your help, I know I wouldn't have gotten there without it!

Surely if you know how many pages the current Section has, you can work out from that what page # the next Section starts with???

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

No, since the section break is a continuous break, it could be positioned at the start of the page, or the middle of the page. If it occurs at the top of page 4, then the first section will have 3 pages. If it occurs in the middle of page 4, then the first section will have 4 pages. In both cases, however, the second section starts on page 4, so you can't reliably calculate which page the second section starts on by the first section page count. It can be on the same page as the last page of the first section, or the next page.

I may be able to devise a solution for this but perhaps you should consider whether you really need that continuous Section break.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I'm pretty sure I need the section break, I believe I need a separate header for the second section (with a different first page header), and the first section will be 1 column, and the second will be 2(although I think that may not require a separate section).

The section I am referencing is a continuation of information on the first page, and a 'continued' message needs to appear in the header of each page in the second section, except the first page of that section since that continuation message will appear at the beginning of that section, wherever it appears on the page.

I'm not sure if I am describing this well enough, I may be able to post a sample document when I'm back in the office. If there is a better solution, I would definitely be interested in knowing, but I believe this will do what I need if there isn't.

I am uploading a demo file that pretty much demonstrates what I need to do. In the footer, there are 2 lines. The bold line works exactly as I need it, but it uses a bookmark and the 'IF' field code, which won't work in the mail merge. The second line is what I put together from the knowledge I have gained in this discussion using the formula you provided. At first, it appears to work since the Information in the second section starts at the top of page 4, but if you add 1 or more extra carriage returns to page 3, then the second line will indicate that the continued copy is on page 5, although it still begins on page 4. (Note that I moved the section break back to before the header for that section, as I need the header to stay with the next paragraph, and I found that apparently the 'Keep with next' won't work if there is a section break between the two).

The second section also has a different header/footer to allow the 'Information Continued' message to appear on each subsequent page that the information section flows into. I still have to code the footer text in the second section so that the 'continued on the next page' message doesn't appear on the last page, but I'm sure I can get that to work properly with a little patience (plus, if I can unlink it properly from the first section, the text wouldn't need to be calculated, since it would always say 'the following page' from then on).

If this can be simplified, and made to work with the mail merge, I would be very happy to find out what I need to do. Again, your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Attached Files

TestMailMerge3.docx (19.1 KB, 10 views)

Having looked at your document, I see that you have two continuous section breaks, so you can have a single-column section between a pair of two-column sections. Naturally, the SECTIONPAGES field can only report what its own range spans and, as soon as that extends over a page boundary, the number increments.

With your single-column section, you might do better to not have that and, instead, put whatever is there into a textbox attached to the second two-column section.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Sorry, there were 2 errors on my part. The first section should have been a single column, and the second section break was added when I was trying to get the header to span the 2 columns; I selected the text and set it to a single column, forgetting that it would add a section break there. That shouldn't have been there since it will no longer be kept with the paragraph that follows it. I had tried using a text box or a text frame originally, but I wasn't able to get it to do what I needed at the time, I'll experiment some more to see if I was missing something.

I'm attaching another document to better illustrate what I am looking for. I still need to try to get the second section header to span the 2 columns (or at least, have the columns line up underneath the header) in a way that will keep it with the next paragraph, and not end up at the bottom of a page by itself.


Again, my apologies for my previous document not being quite correct, and thanks for your continued assistance and patience.

Attached Files

TestMailMerge3.docx (19.8 KB, 7 views)

Ok, I was able to get the text box containing the header for the second section to work (I think); although I don't know if it's the best way to do this, it seems to move properly with the text. Took a bit of fiddling to get it there.

Attached Files

TestMailMerge3A.docx (21.6 KB, 6 views)

I'm beginning to think that the best (and possibly only) solution to my page numbering issue would be to use a MailMergeAfterRecordMerge or MailMergeAfterMerge macro to set the page number after the merge has completed. I would just have to make sure that the client won't have any issues with this method.

Well, this exercise has become a moot point; the account people won't listen to me when I told them this was a more complicated document than they thought it would be. They are insisting the 2 information sections be pasted in as a placed graphic (one at the bottom of the first page, and the other compromising the entire second page), without any consideration that the data on the first page could run to a second page depending on what is in the client's database (they only designed the first page to fit their 'Additional comments here' placeholder, and little else). When it does, either it will be cut off at the bottom of the first page, or the first page will say 'see info continued on following page' even though it is now on the 3rd page. My frustration level has gone through the roof with these people.

I have thankfully managed to remove myself from that project.

</rant>

Thanks again for your assistance, I did manage to learn a lot from you again, so hopefully this wasn't a waste of either of our time.