OOo Off the Wall: Fielding Questions, Part 4 - Mail Merges

Version 2.0 assumes that most users don't need anything other than the wizard. If you want to do anything except the merges included in the wizard, you need to add the tool to the menu. You can make this addition from Tools > Customize > Menu. Select the Tool menu from the drop-down list at the top of the page and then select the Add > Documents > Mail Merge > Add.

Figure 6. You need to place the Mail Merge tool into a menu before you can use it.

If you want to position the tool, use the up and down arrows on the Tools > Customize > Menu. Placing it above the Mail Merge Wizard is a useful place for it.

Figure 7. Select Mail Merge from the list of available tools to add it to a menu.

When you are ready to run the mail merge, follow these steps:

1. If you are going to print to files, place the source document in a separate folder. All the target documents go into the same folder, making them easier to find later.

2. Select Tools > Mail Merge. The Mail Merge screen opens.

Figure 8. The first step in a mail merge: selecting the source document.

3. Choose the source document from which to create the output documents. You can choose the current document or a template, that is, another source document.

After you choose, select the OK button to continue. The Mail Merge screen opens. Essentially, this screen shows the data source window on the top and printing options on the bottom.

Figure 9. The Main Window for the Mail Merge Tool

4. In the data source window, select the database, the table and the database fields to use. Remember that for spreadsheets, the table is the sheet and the database fields are the columns. Similarly, for Mozilla address books, the table is the Named address book and the database fields are the columns.

You can open a different data source from the one you used to design the source documents. However, in order for you to use all the fields, the data source must have all the fields that you added to the labels.

5. Select the records to print. Do one of the following:

6. Select the output. You can choose either Printer or File. Note that the File option produces a Writer file, not a postscript file. One file is produced for each record.

7. If you want the output to be printed as series of single print jobs, select the Single print jobs box. This option is useful when printing to a shared printer. Merge documents are likely to be large, and single print jobs give others a chance to print between your jobs.

8. If you are printing to a file, either enter the directory for the file in the Path field or use the browsing button at the end of the field to locate the directory in a file manager.

9. If you are printing to file, choose how files should be named. Choices are:

10. Select the OK button to print the individual copies of the merge document. If you print to a file, you can print each individual file later.