Mail Merge for Labels using CSV file - Dropping Records

[SimonG]

I have a CSV file I’m using for source (comma delimited, and “” containing text); This has been connected to Base, and fields show as expected.

Label sheet has been defined in Writer, and Labels styled as required.

When printing (8 labels to a sheet), I get 1 sheet of labels, 1 blank sheet, 1 sheet of labels, 1 blank sheet, etc
Also as my labels are numbered, first sheet has labels 1-8 (as expected), next printed sheet has labels 10-17 (ie missing label 9), next printed sheet has labels 19-26 (ie missing label 18), etc

I’ve tried re-creating the sheet, adjusting font, but still get back to this effect, printed sheet, missed label & blank sheet, printed sheet, missed label & blank sheet.

If I select a custom starting record (eg 2 or 10) I still get the ‘printed sheet, missed label & blank sheet’ type output.

As a workaround, I can print a page at a time specifying record numbers. I would like to know whats going wrong, and how to avoid it going forwards?

[Villeroy]

Please upload the Writer document. There is something wrong with page breaks and/or the [Next Record] fields.

[SimonG]

As requested
Example Labels 2024 - First Prize.odt (33.9 KB)

[Grantler]

@SimonG

As requested

Thank you for the sample file. It looks okay imho.
Is there a difference if you set the bottom page margin to say 1 cm instead of 0 cm?


If this does not solve your question: Could you provide some anonymized data of the CSV sheet?

[Villeroy]

Go to the last label (bottom-right) and remove the field directly after “First Prize”. This should solve the problem with the missing 9th label because both, that last field and the page break, move one record forward.
Have a look at File>Printer Settings…
Button [Options…]
Turn off “Print automatically inserted blank pages”

[Grantler]

@Villeroy

Go to the last label (bottom-right) and remove the field directly after “First Prize”.

I am not sure that this is the reason. If you synchronize a labelsheet each label gets the field “next database field” (exact term? - I am not working on English GUI at the moment) and it works as planned.
I remember that in former times (OpenOffice 2.x?) there was a workaround because of this problem (to delete/avoid the last “next database field”).
Let’s see what @SimonG finds out. - Cheers

[Villeroy]

@Grantler

I am not sure that this is the reason.

biblio_labels_table.odt (40.0 KB)
Print this to file.
Open the resulting file and the data source window.
Compare the record identifiers. After label 8 comes #10.
This sample implements a table layout for label printing as offered by several websites (i.e. avery.com).

[Villeroy]

OK, I’m not sure neither because it does not happen with frames, even when they are not linked to the first frame, and @SimonG’s sample is made of frames.
biblio_labels_unlinked_frames.odt (35.5 KB)

[Villeroy]

The page size is A4 which may not concur with the size of the output document. Letter size is a bit smaller.

[PKG]

@Villeroy

OK, I’m not sure neither

Be sure of yourself!

synchronized labels.pdf (42,1 KB)
Unsynchronized.pdf (37,3 KB)

[Villeroy]

@PKG

Be sure of yourself!

Did you create this file with frames or with a table?
It must have been frames. So the best advice to work around this bug might be “remove the last [Next Field] if the frames are not linked.”

[PKG]

@Villeroy

It must have been frames

Not synchronized.odt (12,9 KB)
99,1 x 67,7 sync.odt (13,3 KB)

---

So the best advice to work around this bug might be “remove the last [Next Field] if the frames are not linked.”

Yes!

[Grantler]

@PKG @Villeroy
Thank you for the insights!

[Villeroy]

@SimonG, remove the narrow, gray field between the word “Prize” and the paragraph mark within the last label frame. This thingy tells the program to pull the next record from the data source. In your particular case, the program pulls the 9th record and directly after that the 10th because of the end of page.

[SimonG]

Thank you Villeroy
Although I’m not seeing any field after “Prize”, there is a space, removing the ‘space’ fixes the missing record issue

Thank you again
The “Print automatically inserted blank pages” exists in two places, within Options and within the Options when printing, I’ve found I need to turn both of these off.

Your advised actions solve both issues, thank you

[SimonG]

Within Options “Print automatically inserted blank pages”

[SimonG]

When printing, second “Print automatically inserted blank pages” option

[EarnestAl]

@SimonG

I’m not seeing any field after “Prize”

Click View > Field shadings to see all the fields

@SimonG

Within Options “Print automatically inserted blank pages”

This sets what you want as default for all documents.

@SimonG

When printing, second “Print automatically inserted blank pages” option

This sets it for the current document only (overrides setting in Options for current document)

[Villeroy]

Field highlighting should be always on. For accurate preview, you can always turn on print preview. In order to get the meaning of that field, just copy one from the other frames, paste it into a new text document and toggle the field names (Ctrl+F9).
Your 3 mail merge fields in full length look like this:

The last one has no content. It tells the program to pull the next record. If you remove all of them, the end of document pulls the next record. Thus you would get one page of label 1, another page of label 2 and so on.