UPDATE 2018-04-10: PLEASE IGNORE THIS QUESTION. The problem was dependent on the local installation of LibreOffice.
ORIGINAL QUESTION:
It seems that my setup of LibreOffice (current version 5.1.6.2, running on Ubuntu 16.04) will malfunction during mail merge operations if the writer document is on my network drive. I have observed that if I copy the same document to my desktop or even a USB stick, that the mail merge will work properly. I am using LibreOffice formats for the the spreadsheet containing the data for mail merge and the document itself (i.e. ods and odt).
Workaround: Copy the document to my desktop or home and then do the mail merge - easy!
Steps to reproduce:
— create a LO spreadsheet with two columns and enter column names in the top row and some data in a few rows underneath, then save in a network drive.
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create a LO document
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insert two fields as follows
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go to Insert > Field > More Fields
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in the dialog box, select Database
tab -
click the Browse… button to navigate to and select the spreadsheet.
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This will add the file to the “Database selection” list
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ensure that “Mail merge fields” is selected in the “Type” list
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navigate through the “Database selection” to the spreadsheet and then the fields/columns within it.
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click “Insert” to insert first field and repeat for second field.
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save document on the same network drive
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close document
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copy document to the desktop
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open the desktop version of the document and attempt to conduct a mail merge
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expected result: SUCCESS - actual result: SUCCESS
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close all documents
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open network drive version of the document and repeat mail merge process
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expected result: SUCCESS - actual result: FAILURE