I followed gmayor's advice re: putting in "Next Record" on the 2nd and 3d labels on a template containing three labels total. As a result, I am getting some, but not all, of the behavior on the mail merge I am looking for.

Within any given page of labels (3 per page, one across) the "Next Record" command does produce the merge field value from the next record. However, the second page of labels now starts with the merge field value from second record in the source file and displays merge values for the 2nd, 3d and 4th records. The third page of labels starts with the 3d record and displays the the merge values for the 3d, 4th and 5th records, etc. This happens both with my own custom 3-down, 1-across labels as well as with a test run I did on a standard Avery label template (#5126).

The source file is a simple Excel worsheet containing a single column of values with the first row in this column being the name of the merge field variable.

Any idea what is happening here?

You are previewing the merge. You must complete the merge to a new document in order for the subsequent pages to populate correctly.

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Graham Mayor - MS MVP (Word) (2002-2019)
Visit my web site for more programming tips and ready made processes www.gmayor.com

Mr. Mayor:

Thanks very much for your post. There is, indeed, a difference between the preview and the completed merge. The merged document is fine.

Needless to say I am mystified as to why Microsoft would provide a preview capability that allows one to step through the entire merge page-by-page but does not show accurate merge results. Its not really a preview at all. Unbelievably bad software design. Malicious software design, really, given the hours I have wasted on this.

Thanks, gmayor.

While the preview may not be very useful for a Label type mail merge (or a Directory type), it can be of benefit for a Letter type merge and especially if the mail merge main document includes If...then...Else field construction(s).