Problems With Office Pro 2010

[timbo1957]

I have used Mail Merge to produce Rent Reminders for a local allotment association using Mail Merge in Office Pro 2003 and Vista for several years, now I have upgraded to 2010 and Windows 7 I am having problems.

All the data is being picked up from an Excel workbook.

I have the basic data Mem No, Title, Initials, Surname, Address1, Address2 , Address3, Address4, Post Code, Tel No, Email Address. All works fine.

In the next column in Excel is a plot number, which can either be a whole number i.e. 19 or alpha numeric 20A or 20B.

In the next column in Excel is the rent due i.e. £10.50.

Some members have more than one plot so there are extra columns in Excel and the headings go PlotNo1, Rent1 PlotNo2, Rent2, PlotNo3, Rent3, PlotNo4, Rent 4.

The problem I am having is that the first 9 members have a single plot the 10th member has two plots, the 11th member has one plot and the 12th member has two plots. When I run the mailmerge I get

Mem 1 PlotNo Rent


Mem 2 PlotNo Rent
Mem 3 PlotNo Rent
Mem 4 PlotNo Rent
Mem 5 PlotNo Rent
Mem 6 PlotNo Rent
Mem 7 PlotNo Rent
Mem 8 PlotNo Rent
Mem 9 PlotNo Rent
Mem 10 PlotNo Rent Plot No Rent
Mem 11 PlotNo Rent
Mem 12 PlotNo Rent Rent

When it gets to the 12th member it misses out the the second plot number and this is intermittent throughout the next 150 members. Somtimes the second plot number is there sometimes it isn't.

I have cut out all of the members with more than one plot and mail merged them and it worked okay, likewise if I sort the Excel file into all multiple plot holders at the top everyone with one plot underneath the mail merge works.

I'm confused.

In addition is there anyway to pick up the email address in the mail merge so that you can click on it and send the rent reminder by email?

Many thanks.

[macropod]

Hi timbo,

Part of the problem may have to do with the way Word determines whether a particular source field (ie Excel column) contains numbers or alpha-numeric strings. If the first few records (Excel rows) contain numbers (or are, perhaps, empty), the whole field (column) may be treated as numeric. In that case records containing anything other than numbers may be missed or evaluated as 0.

Alternatively, the problem may be to do with how your data are defined. If some records are being output correctly and others aren't, that's an area I'd be looking at. For example, are you sure the data have all be input & formatted the same way? Look carefully for the differences between the records that do export correctly and those that don't. Note too that things like double quotes in a record can seriouly mess up that record's mailmerge.

[timbo1957]

Hi macropod,

Thanks for your assistance. I am a heavy Excel user and have been since Windows 3.1 (1993 from memory) so I know my way around it pretty well.

I have a master membership book which in turn feeds into five smaller workbooks for different fields that the association manages on behalf of the local authority. This is all voluntary so I used me Excel skill to automate what was originally a handwritten process taking weeks.

The alphanumeric cells in question are formatted in Excel as General, and this worked in Windows Vista and XP.

So I am at a loss really.

Regards

Tim.

[macropod]

Hi Tim,

The first part of my answer relates to to the data formatting, but to its organisation. That can make a real difference under the circumstances I described.