Mail Merge Next Record If rule

[RHensley]

To whom it may concern:

We are beating our heads up against a wall with a Next Record If Rule in a mail merge. We have a set of data that is in an Access Table for example that has a person's name and User ID but, then each person has multiple permissions associated with their User ID and name. We need a next record if rule that states if they have another permission associated with their User ID and name to insert the next permission. We are trying to get feedback from all of these users via email to see if they still need that permission to that file or system anymore.

Attached is an example and also due to this being PII information I have taken out their names and User IDs placed fakes ones in its place. Also, our data set is very large and has over 500 people in it that is why we are trying to automate the mail merge.



Thanks a million to whomever can assist us.

[RHensley]

Sorry just to clarify we are trying to get this to work in a Mail merge in Word. Thanks so much!

[RHensley]

Here is the Word mail merge word document that we are using for the email forgot to attach it with the data source. Thanks! Any assistance is so greatly appreciated.

[macropod]

You can use Word's Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge facility for this (the terminology depends on the Word version). To see how to do so with any mailmerge data source supported by Word, check out my Microsoft Word Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge Tutorial:
https://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-...-tutorial.html
The tutorial covers everything from list creation to the insertion & calculation of values in multi-record tables in letters. Do read the tutorial before trying to use the mailmerge document included with it.

The field coding for this is complex. However, since the tutorial document includes working field codes for all of its examples, most of the hard work has already been done for you - you should be able to do little more than copy/paste the relevant field codes into your own mailmerge main document, substitute/insert your own field names and adjust the formatting to get the results you desire. For some worked examples, see the attachments to the posts at:
https://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-...html#post23345
https://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-...html#post30327

Another option would be to use a DATABASE field in a normal ‘letter’ mailmerge main document and a macro to drive the process. An example of this approach can be found at: Many to one email merge using tables - Microsoft Community
The DATABASE field can even be used without recourse to a mailmerge. An example of such usage can be found at: https://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-...html#post67097

Alternatively, you may want to try one of the Many-to-One Mail Merge add-ins, from:
Graham Mayor at Merge Many To One or
Doug Robbins at Microsoft services

[RHensley]

Thanks Paul for all of you assistance it is great appreciated. Thanks again you have been so helpful.

[RHensley]

So I believe we are close but, need some more guidance I am getting it to work for the last name but not for the permission. Attached is what I have so far and my original SS that contains the source data. This is what my rule looks like so far {IF {MERGEFIELD LastName_Field }<> b\MERGEFORMAT{MERGEFIELD LastName_Field}{MERGEFIELD Permission }} but, how do we get it to repeat for every instance because I have people that have multiple permissions for example how do I get it to move to the next record 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 times. I am so close but, need some more guidance.

Any other suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much we are begging and pleading. So close but not there.

[macropod]

Your mailmerge main document isn't set up anything like that described in the tutorial or demonstrated in the example links I supplied. Furthermore, for reasons you haven't explained, your document is set up for an email merge, not a Directory Merge.

[RHensley]

Hi Paul,

Ok well then can you assist me if I am way off base then because I need some guidance on what I am missing in the rule in the mail merge. In my original post I did explain that this is an email merge I stated "We are trying to get feedback from all of these users via email" so, sorry if you missed that in my first post.

I will go back to drawing board to see if I can figure it out just wanted a little push on the rule portion of it.

Thanks and take care!

[RHensley]

Hi Paul,

Also, just to mention there shouldn't be a difference between the mail merge rule whether it is a letter or an email because there is no difference between the two because we are still trying to insert the next record in the data set. Correct?

If you could please please please please give us some guidance. This is something that is baffling us and we need some guidance on what we are missing in our rule.

We are not analytical people here we are more visual folks so, here is what we want in words: if the last name is equal to the last name then insert the permission associated with that person if it is not equal then go to the next set of data that is associated with that next person.

Thanks so much!

[macropod]

As described in the tutorial, you need to create two separate documents:
1. An e-mail mailmerge main document, which you configure for a normal e-mail merge. This file should contain whatever text you need and a single «Data» mergefield for the data. Save this document in an appropriate folder with the name ‘Email Merge Main Document.doc’. Your mailmerge main document is not set up like that; neither is it named appropriately.
2. A separate Catalog/Directory mailmerge main document, with a single paragraph containing field coding as described in the tutorial. You should add the macros from the tutorial to this document*, then save it in the same folder as the ‘Email Merge Main Document’. You can give this document whatever name you want except for:
• ‘Email Merge Main Document.doc’; and
• ‘EmailDataSource.doc’
Once you’ve done that, run the ‘RunMerge’ macro.

When you run the the ‘RunMerge’ macro, it will create a document named ‘EmailDataSource.doc’. You can delete this file after the merge has finished if you don't need it for anything else.

* You need all three macros from that part of the tutorial. The ‘EmailMergeTableMaker’ macro is called by the ‘RunMerge’ macro; without it the ‘RunMerge’ macro will fail. Similarly, the ‘TableJoiner’ macro is called by the ‘EmailMergeTableMaker’ macro; without it the ‘EmailMergeTableMaker’ macro will fail

[RHensley]

Thanks Paul we will try it out. Thanks again for the thorough explanation.