Mail Merge automation of a single record DBF file

[deilenberger]

Folks,

I'm trying to move our organization from Word-97 to something a bit more modern... OpenOffice.

We have an in-house program that we use to create a mail-merge database in DBF format (the program actually does lots more - but this is what the question is about..)

It creates a single record DBF file in a standardized location on the users computer. It then opens word - with a form mail-merge letter (selected from within the in-house program) - that automatically merges the data from the single-record DBF file and allows the user to edit and/or print the form letter.

All of this happens automatically using MS Word-97 (and later versions.)

I can't figure out how to make this happen automatically (open the document and perform the merge) with Writer. I can open Writer, and I can open Writer with the selected document - but I can't figure out how to get Writer to automatically merge the single record into the document (something that is fairly trivial to do in Word..)

Any hints would be gratefully appreciated!

Don Eilenberger

[acknak]

I think ultimately you need to ask this over in the Macros forum. As far as I know, there is no way to have Writer automatically merge the data, although you can ask Writer to print a file--I just don't know what happens if that file is a merge document. It could possibly go ahead and do the merge, or it could just use the old data.

Hmm, a quick test... looks like it uses the old data from the previous merge.

[deilenberger]

Thanks..

I'll post it in Macros.. but wonder if a macro can run automatically when the document opens..

This is SO easy to do in Word..

[foxcole]

Yes, a macro can be assigned to the file-open event, so it runs when you open the document.