Using a formatted table as a mail merge source

[nchandler]

Somehow many years ago a co-worker made a document with a formatting table (not an embedded excel table) that's used as a mail merge source for another document to make labels with. We've upgraded to 2010 and it's no longer working as it once did.

Is there a way to connect this table as a data source in 2010? I've been looking in to the XML schema, but I'm not sure that's the way to go. I've tried embedding an excel table into the document, but that's not as easy for them to edit and never looks quite right. I essentially need the ease of use of a formatting table with the functionality of an excel table. Is this possible? Am I totally missing something? I mostly work in Excel and with VBA, so this is a little out of my element.



Thanks!

[gmayor]

Microsoft has not removed any of the older mail merge functions from Word 2010. Some of them however are less accessible.

What do you mean in this context as a 'formatting table'?

If you mean include formatting in the data: From the Tools menu in Word, select Options and then go to the General tab and check the box against the "Confirm conversions at open" item. (In Word 2010 it is File > Options > Advanced > General > Confirm file format conversion on open). Then when you attach the data source to the mail merge main document, you will be given the option of using the DDE method of connection which should read the data as you have it formatted in the table.

However Microsoft changed the default connection method for good reasons, not least of which was that DDE is somewhat flaky. It is therefore better to use the default connection and provide the formatting in the merge document itself - see http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm

You can then use Excel as your data source, which tends to give better results all round, where it can be used.

[nchandler]

I tried changing the options, but nothing changed when I went to use the document as the source. I think I explained it poorly. I've attached a slightly edited version of the document I'm working on that I'm trying to use as a data source.

When I say the formatting table, I really just mean a regular table made in Word. I was trying to differentiate between that and an Excel table. You'll see in the document. The entire top half is the Header and then the table is the majority of the content, but it doesn't recognize the table as a valid data source anymore, probably caused by the move away from a DDE connection like you said.

I tried embedding an Excel table into the document (they want it to be word because they also print this sheet out for a paper trail, which is it's own debate), but it made the data entry more difficult because they would have to double click on the table to get into the excel document and enter it from there and it's not as restrictive as the word table which is locked at 4 columns and 5 rows.

Thank you for your reply! I'm looking through your blog now, it seems very helpful.

[gmayor]

Word doesn't identify the document as a data source because of the superfluous data that is not a table. Remove that and it works just fine as a data source.

You could automate that with a macro that copies the table to a new document and then attaches that document to the merge document as a data source before running the merge. Or do that manually. It takes but a few moments.