Creating More Sophisticated Form Letters


Creating More Sophisticated Form Letters

Microsoft Office Specialist: Merge letters with a Word, Excel, or Access data source

With Word, you have several ways to control exactly what is printed in a merged document. You can even include fields that cause the mail merge process to pause and prompt you for additional information that is not included in the data source. Although these methods are not very complicated, a complete explanation of them is beyond the scope of this course. But we will show you how to turn your original form letter into one that makes a decision about what to print based on information about the recipient, to give you an idea of what can be done.

Adding a Field to the Data Source

Let s create a letter that thanks people for their order of Glacier sleeping bags and includes a paragraph that Word will print only if the recipient s order is over a certain dollar amount. To allow Word to make the printing decision, you have to add a field to the data source to hold the amount of the order. Follow these steps to display the recipients list and add this field:

  1. If Main Document1 is not open on your screen, open it now. If necessary, close the Mail Merge task pane.

  2. To display the recipients list, click the Mail Merge Recipients button on the Mail Merge toolbar.

    Word displays the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box shown earlier.

  3. Click Edit , then Customize , and then Add .

    Word displays the dialog box shown in this graphic:

  4. In the Type a name text box, type Order , and click OK .

  5. Click Move Down until Order is the last field in the list, and then click OK to close the dialog box.

  6. In the View Entries area, click the Previous button until the information for Tim Buhr is displayed.

  7. Scroll the Enter Address Information area, click the Order text box, and type 250 .

    Information about: The Mail Merge toolbar, page 204

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    Sorting data

    You might want to sort the information in your data source before the merge operation.Display the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box, and click the column header for the field you want to sort by. (Word sorts in ascending order first. Click again to sort in descending order.) For more complex sorts ”those that use more than one sort field ” display the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box, click the Edit button, click Filter and Sort, and then click the Sort Records tab. Set up your sort criteria, and click OK.

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  8. Click the Next to display the next record, and in the Order text box for Pete Moss, type 600 . Repeat this step to enter 1250 in the Order text box for Brooke Trout.

  9. Click Close , and then click OK .

Personalizing the Text of a Form Letter

The basic premise behind a form letter is that the same text is sent to every recipient. However, with Word you can personalize the text by using conditional statements , which include or change information depending on whether the recipient meets certain conditions. In this procedure, you will explore the use of conditional statements by creating one that controls the printing of an additional sentence in your form letter based on the amount of the recipient s contribution.

Instead of creating a new main document to demonstrate how to personalize form letters, let s use the one you ve already saved. After you have created a main document, you can open and edit it just like any other document. You can add tables, graphs, pictures, and various types of Word fields, including conditional statements. Follow these steps:

  1. If Main Document1 displays the information for one of the recipients, click the View Merged Data button on the Mail Merge toolbar to display the document s merge fields.

  2. In the second sentence of Main Document1, click an insertion point to the left of We are excited , and type Your order of $ .

  3. On the Mail Merge toolbar, click the Insert Merge Fields button.

    Word displays the dialog box shown in this graphic:

  4. Select the new Order field, click Insert , and then click Close .

  5. Type a space followed by worth of merchandise is greatly appreciated followed by a period and a space, and then press Enter twice.

  6. Click an insertion point after the space at the end of the new sentence, click the Insert Word Field button on the Mail Merge toolbar to drop down a list of fields, and click the If...Then...Else... option.

    Word displays the dialog box shown in this graphic:

    click to expand
  7. Click the down arrow at the right end of the Field name text box, and click Order in the drop-down list of field names .

  8. Drop down the Comparison list, and click Greater than . Then in the Compare to text box, type 500 .

  9. Press Tab to move to the Insert this text box, and type the following:

    Because of the size of your order, we are offering you an additional 10% off on your next purchase.

    If the result of the conditional statement is true ”that is, if the value of the order is greater than $500 ”Word will enter this text in the merged document.

  10. Leave the Otherwise insert this text box blank, and click OK to close the dialog box.

    If the result of the conditional statement is not true ”that is, if the value of the order is $500 or less ”you don t want Word to print anything.

  11. Save the main document as Main Document2 .

    Although you have added a conditional statement to the document, nothing appears to have changed because Word is still displaying the merge fields in the document.

  12. Press Alt+F9 to hide the merge fields and display the field codes.

    The field codes contain placeholder text that shows where data source information will appear and how it will be treated. The document now looks as shown in this graphic:

    click to expand
  13. Press Alt+F9 again to hide the field codes and redisplay the merge fields.

Viewing and Editing Merged Data

You have several ways to check the results of your mail merge efforts. You can click one of the buttons on the Mail Merge toolbar to merge the letters to a new document, to the printer, to your e-mail application, or to a fax machine; or you can look at the results right in the main document. Follow these steps to preview the merged data:

  1. On the Mail Merge toolbar, click the View Merged Data button to display the data from the first record in place of the merge fields.

  2. Click the Previous Record and Next Record buttons to cycle through the records in your data source.

    The current record number is displayed in the box between the Previous Record and Next Record buttons. The merged data for the third record, with an order amount of $1,250, is shown in this graphic:

    click to expand

    If you entered orders of $250, $600, and $1,250 for the three customers, the first customer s letter doesn t have the extra sentence and the second and third customer s letters do. Let s see what happens if you change the comparison opera- tor from greater than to less than.

  3. Press Alt+F9 to display the field codes, and click to the left of the > symbol in the first paragraph.

    Word highlights the conditional statement.

  4. Press Delete , type < in its place, and click away from the conditional statement.

  5. Press Alt+F9 again, and cycle through the records to see the result.

  6. On the Mail Merge toolbar, click the Merge to New Document button.

    Word displays the dialog box shown in this graphic:

  7. Click OK to accept the All option.

  8. Scroll through the new merged document, save it as Form Letters2 , and then close it.

  9. Save and close Main Document2.




Online Traning Solutions - Quick Course in Microsoft Word 2002
Online Traning Solutions - Quick Course in Microsoft Word 2002
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 74

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