Merge list to booklet style directory

[beeherd]

Hi,

I've been trying to produce a mail merged membership directory and have spent MANY hours without getting all my requirements met. It seems as soon as I get one requirement handled, another moves off the reservation.

Getting the list into a merged document is no problem.

What I want is...

• One record per booklet page
• Each finished page should be 1/2 of letter size, 8.5 wide x 5.5 high inches
• The 8.5x5.5 sheet would be folded so two records should appear before assembly.
• The records should be in my original sort order after all pages are printed and they are folded in the middle with finished booklet pages being 4.25 x 5.5.

One maddening thing is, that the font size seems to change to accomodate the smaller print area and/or shrink the print area when that isn't what I want.

I think I've probably found all the settings I need, but cannot figure out the correct combination and order to get this right.

I am pretty sure I have to use bookfold when printing and I should not use multiple columns.



The use of landscape and portrait in layout and printing seem to defy my expectations regularly.

Any tips would be helpful. If it would help to start with a specific attempt and explain the setup and problems, I can do that.

Thank you much.
I will attempt to answer questions in the Excel area for my karma points hehe. I'm much better at that program even if I've become a very casual user of it in the last few years.

[macropod]

The issues you describe have little to do with mailmerge and much to do with basic document design and management.

You should set the page size to 4.25 x 5.5, with a single column and a bookfold layout. Unless you want the pages to have a landscape layout, use the portrait layout.

The font issue relates to whatever the formatting is of the paragraphs into which you're inserting the mergefields. Correctly define their Styles and the formatting will be correct.

Since you want one record per page, use a Letter mailmerge. And, since you want the records sorted in a particular order, make sure either that they're in that order in the datasource or that the sort order is defined via Edit Recipients List>Sort.