Hi,

I'm looking into using mail merge to produce a range of engineering specifications. At the moment we use a template to create about 60 different documents on each job, but the layout is the same, the text in each of the 60-odd documents is consistent across jobs but we need to populate a client name, client code, client logo, and date and approval fields.

Is it possible to use mail merge with data like the cases shown below (there are about 60 of these):

One table that has some common and some changing data in a table:

PILP-000-EGS-001 Site conditions
PILP-000-EGS-003 General mechanical requirements
PILP-000-EGS-007 General electrical requirements
PILP-000-EMT-FAN Fan datasheet

PILP-000-EGS-001 Site conditions
PILP-000-EGS-003 General mechanical requirements
PILP-000-EGS-007 General electrical requirements
PILP-000-EMT-DRA Air dryer datasheet

PILP-000-EGS-001 Site conditions
PILP-000-EGS-003 General mechanical requirements
PILP-000-EGS-007 General electrical requirements
PILP-000-EGS-012 General structural requirements
PILP-000-EMT-EVE Triple effect evaporator datasheet

A second section of the document that has different blocks of text:
case 1:
a) fabrication and supply of all vessels, complete with all nozzles, manways required attachments and any other component required to achieve its nominated capacity
b) fabrication and supply of all vessel support structures. Thermal growth allowances to be considered
c) fabrication and supply of all pipework, valving and instrumentation within the battery limits of this Specification
d) fabrication and supply of all supporting steelwork for all pipework and vessels as defined within the battery limits of this Specification
e) complete pump assemblies inclusive of electric motor, drive system, skid base frame and any mechanical component required to achieve its nominated capacity
f) drive system to incorporate any couplings, belt drives, gearboxes, lubrication systems, personnel safety guards or any required item which will enable the transmission of the motor power to the specified equipment
g) mating suction and discharge flanges for each pump assembly, including gaskets, nuts, bolts and washers
h) fabrication and supply of jacking point or lug attachments to facilitate installation and future maintenance works


i) insulation and cladding if required

a) Complete air dryer assembly inclusive of integrated moisture separation system, automatic condensate drainage system, electrics and remote status alarm system, skid base frame and any mechanical component required to achieve its nominated capacity
b) Any instrumentation required for the safe operation of the equipment inclusive of any relief valves, pressure drop indicators and gauges
c) Shop assembly and testing of all supplied equipment. All equipment shall be preassembled at the Supplier’s premises prior to shipment, to ensure that all sections fit correctly
d) Surface protection and painting of all supplied equipment shall be as per the Supplier’s nominated standards
e) Packaging and temporary support of all supplied equipment, suitable for road and sea transport to site
f) All ancillary items normally supplied with or required to adjust and maintain all components associated with the equipment
g) All fasteners, gaskets, packers, shims and any other items necessary for site assembly

a) Complete fan assembly inclusive of electric motor, drive system, skid base frame and any mechanical component required to achieve its nominated capacity
b) Drive system to incorporate any couplings, belt drives, gearboxes, lubrication systems, personnel safety guards or any required item which will enable the transmission of the motor power to the specified equipment.
c) Mating suction and discharge flanges for each fan assembly, including gaskets, nuts, bolts and washers
d) Any instrumentation required for the safe operation of the equipment inclusive of any relief valves, pressure drop indicators and gauges
e) Shop assembly and testing of all supplied equipment. All equipment shall be preassembled at the Supplier’s premises prior to shipment, to ensure that all sections fit correctly
f) Surface protection and painting of all supplied equipment shall be as per the Supplier’s nominated standards
g) Packaging and temporary support of all supplied equipment, suitable for road and sea transport to site

the key point with the above example text is that there is not always the same number of rows of data in a table, so I'd like to know if we can mail merge a table in or similar.

Likewise there are sections of text that are unique and may be multiple bullet points in a row.

In other documents we have dealt with this by using book marks and then running a macro that deletes book marks that aren't tagged with the required equipment type. However this only let us prodcue one document type at a time from the common template. I want to pump out the 60-odd documents all at once.

Happy to pay for the right help on this one if someone needs to put in some time on it.

Thanks.

Hi Engineer,

If each table always lists the same items, you don't need either them or their contents to be in the data source. Rather, your data source can simply contain a code (eg A, B, C) in a field named 'table' or something such to tell Word which of a series of tables embedded in fields within it to display. Such a series of fields might be coded as:
{IF{MERGEFIELD Table}= "A" "Table for A"}{IF{MERGEFIELD Table}= "B" "Table for B"}{IF{MERGEFIELD Table}= "C" "Table for C"}
where the field brace pairs (ie '{ }') are created in the body of the document via Ctrl-F9 (Cmd-F9 on a Mac).

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

thanks, I'll give that a go.