Select records in Base for mail-merge

[bob_h]

Selecting records in Base for mail-merge in Writer

I manage a database with approaching a thousand records of members of a voluntary campaign organisation. I want to write to selected members. I can set up a ‘view’ to select members. However, the mail-merge still outputs to all.

I guess I could perform a sort and manually (by inspection) find the last record that applies, then mail-merge in Writer from record 1 to that record.

However, the sort will sometimes be complex (eg a combination of has the member paid in last 2 years, or made a donation, or is a ‘free concession’ etc). Also, the relevant data could be in widely separated table columns. These things mean a manual inspection to find the right record could be hard to do, especially with a thousand records. It would always be open to error.

Am I missing something? Is there a way to do this nicely?

Many thanks for advice.

Bob

For Base & Writer, LibO 4.4.0.3, Windows 7.

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[doug]

Have you tried Tools → Mail Merge Wizard, 3d screen titled Insert Address Block, Select Different Address List → Change Table and then verify that the specific table in the data source really is the one you want?

[bob_h]

Hi Doug, thanks v much, that turned out to be part of the answer. One problem was my lack of understanding of how Base works, although a pretty good understanding of how databases in general work. The fundamental problem is the total lack of documentation about this in relation to mail-merge, where the selection of data needs to be transmitted to Writer. It’s telling that no-one else has answered in the last day and a half! Anyway, I’ve put a more detailed answer to my own question. Bw, Bob

[doug]

The other LO components get more traffic than base, thus more, dev, documentation, support. View noted in your question is term of art in databases, meaning a table-like query. Had assumed that was available to merge.

[bob_h]

My own answer…

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• Open database.
• Create a query using ‘Create Query in Design View’.
• Drag in all the fields you want to use in the mail-merge document.
• Add the criteria on one or more fields (note that criteria are case-sensitive; see LO wiki for help). Criteria on other fields left blank.
• Check the query works (F5 key). Save the query.
• Now use the query as the source of fields for the mail-merge document (use ‘Insert Fields | More Fields’).
• Finally, do the mail-merge using ‘Tools | Wizard’ (tell the wizard in its 3rd section to use the query rather than the main database by ‘Select Address List | Change Table’).

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Bob H