Mail merge to create paper address book page

[Lizzie]

I would like to use an excel spreadsheet with contact details to populate a paper address book. I want to format the pages nicely so they can be read easily and new entries added by hand.



I created a single page with separate tables but cant find out how to merge more than one record per page.

Any help gratefully received.

I have attached an image of how I would like the finished product to look -
Address book.PNG

[macropod]

You could do that with a directory merge. Here's how:
1. Do the initial setup for a directory merge, connecting the document to the data source.
2. Create a table like the one for your A example.
3. Populate the table with your required mergefields.
4. Insert two paragraph breaks after the table.
5. Insert a «Next Record» field into the first paragraph after the table.
6. Copy the table and paste it into the second paragraph after the table.
7. Shade the first or second table.
8. Make sure there is nothing after the second table except for two paragraph breaks
9. Run the merge.

[Lizzie]

That is amazing!

I have spent hours trying to get this to work and seem to have been making a meal of it!

Worked exactly as I wanted.

Thank you very much indeed

[Lizzie]

Hi sorry if this is reopening a 'Solved' thread but to push my skills a bit further - how could I force a page break on change of first letter of surname???

I have added a column to the spreadsheet to show first letter and sorted by this letter - how can I translate that into a page break in the mail merge?

Thank you for your time

[macropod]

That could be done, but it's fiddly to set up in Excel (requires another column to test the first letter of each surname) and the field coding is relatively complicated, for something that requires, at most, pressing Ctrl-Enter 25 times in the mailmerge output document.