Mail merge only filling in ONE sheet of labels

[RogerFern]

Technical: iMac, running High Sierra (macOS 10.13.3). LibreOffice Version: 6.2.7.1

With Christmas cards in mind, I’m trying to create a set of address-labels. I have my list of addresses in a spreadsheet, and have managed with to get as far through the process as getting the names/addresses to copy from the LO database that has the spreadsheet entries into a blank sheet of labels. I had quite a bit of trouble getting that far, but managed to get it to happen by using a suggestion in this forum to select labels in the database and click on the ‘Data to Fields’ icon. HOWEVER, although I managed to select ALL 91 entries in the database, it would only fill one sheet of labels (21 of them). Obviously, I want labels for all 91 entries. I can’t work out how to make it do that. Anyone got any suggestions, please?

[Ratslinger]

Hello,

The better method is to use the menu selection File->New->Labels. From there it is a matter of filling out the presented dialogs. An explanation of the process is in the LO documentation. See → LibreOffice Writer Guide Chapter 14 - Mail merge and the section on Labels.

[RogerFern]

Many thanks to Ratslinger for pointing me in the right direction. The instructions aren’t 100% intuitive, but I managed to find my way to a properly filed-in set of labels. Very satisfactory. BUT I now have another problem. I’ve edited my spreadsheet on names & addresses, and want to re-create the address database. I deleted the earlier copies of the database, which perhaps I shouldn’t have done. When I get to printing the labels, the print dialogue says that the database (using the name of the original database) doesn’t exist. I’ve been into preferences and deleted the entry in the database list. However, the wizard won’t let me create a new database with the old name, because it says that the name is in use. Also, I can’t work out how to get the print dialogue to look for a database wit another name. This may not now be a mail merge problem, but a database registration problem (or perhaps there’s something in mail merge that needs altering??).

[Ratslinger]

Hello,

Yes you should have kept the old database. It should pick up changes made in the spreadsheet.

As for the existing name try this. Go to LibreOffice->Preferences. In left column double click LibreOffice Base to expand then select Databases. Then in right pane, find your registered database name, left click once to select then click on the Delete button. Click OK to complete. Close ALL LO instances running for options to register.

Now try to establish new database.

[RogerFern]

Dear Ratslinger,

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried what you suggested, with no luck. I tried creating a new version of the spreadsheet, with a new name, and registered it as a database. Even so, in LO Writer when I clicked on File > new > labels I got the same display that I set up for the original effort & database. When I tried to print, it still said that the original database didn’t exist. Then I tried creating the labels on another machine – my MacBook. The spreadsheet was on Dropbox, so I created a new copy of it on the MacBook. I was then able to create & register a database, and create labels. I was then able to acces this on the Mac (via Dropbox). So, until I run into the next problem, I seem to have what I want. The documentation needs to stress that the spreadsheet & the database are a pair, and work together. Changes made to the spreadsheet, as you said, go straight through to the labels, via the database.

[Ratslinger]

Because of the ‘new name’ the linked fields needed to be re-done for the labels. This is just deleting the old fields and add in the new.

[RogerFern]

Answer: see previous comment. I don’t think I’ve SOLVED the problem (there’s probably a loose link in there somewhere), but I seem to have got round it by creating a new copy on another machine (MacBook) and registering a database there.