Mail Merge Help needed...

[scc]

Hi, I'm in a pinch here and hope someone can help me.

We are working with the Red Cross and sponsoring children for Christmas for Everyone.

I have a relational database in Access that has a table of families and children.

I need to create a letter for each family that lists each of their childrens info on the letter. There may be anywhere from 1 to 7 children per family.

How can I accomplish this?

Here's my proposed merge portion of the letter:

Appt Time: «Appt» Family ID: «FamID» No. of Children: «NumOfChildren»
Parents: «ParentFName» «ParentLName»
Children:
«First_Name_Child» «Sex» «Age» «ChildID»«Next Record»
«First_Name_Child» «Sex» «Age» «ChildID»«Next Record»
«First_Name_Child» «Sex» «Age» «ChildID»«Next Record»
«First_Name_Child» «Sex» «Age» «ChildID»«Next Record»
«First_Name_Child» «Sex» «Age» «ChildID»«Next Record»
«First_Name_Child» «Sex» «Age» «ChildID»«Next Record»
«First_Name_Child» «Sex» «Age» «ChildID»«Next Record»


But I don't know how to break into a new letter when the Family ID changes.

TIA

 

[nberryman]

The quickest way is to use the Report Wizard to create a Main/Sub report.

Run the Wizard and select the fields form the tables and it should do the hard work for you.

Let me know how you get on in case I can be of further assistance

Neil Neil Berryman
IT Trainer
neil_berryman@btopenworld.com

 

[scc]

I forgot to mention that the letter is in Microsoft Word.

Is this possible using MS Word for the letter and a query as the data source?

 

[nberryman]

It's not so simple with Word but if you can send me the Letter and a sample of your database I will have a look at the weekend for you

Copy the database and delete any data and add some sample made up data then select Tools, Database Utlities and Compact and Repair. This will reduce the size for my home e mail

Regards

Neil Neil Berryman
IT Trainer
neil_berryman@btopenworld.com

 

[scc]

Neil,

I will email the db and letter, but it will may be Saturday evening, so that I can get this automated for the next merge. However, my urgency is that this particular merge must be done today as tomorrow (7:30 am) is Distribution day. Plus, I'm at work now and the data is at home.

For now, I will create an Access report and print the letters myself. The normal end user would not have MS Access, only MS Word, put if I put the .mdb file on their computer they can still use it as a data source for the mail merge.

Thanks for your help...

Maybe someone else will know how in VBA we could check previous record or something to start a new letter.