I’m using merge to create a personal directory. Created spreadsheet, into db, registered; created document with following fields, most of which are marked to be hidden if empty (separate hidden paragraph field): Each is a field with<> but it would not print all of them even here!
Last Name, First Name
Home Street. Email
Home C,S,Z. Cellphone
Extra Info
“Next Record” field.
It would not incorporate all db entries on one page so I made an entire page of repeated fields, with next record at end of each. Now it will incorporate ALL 100 or so entries. Here is the issue: It will sporadically omit one field on one “label”/entry for the end document. Not always the same field–like it has a mind of its own. I copied and pasted the fields so as not to have an error in entry, yet one db entry will come up without the <Home, C,S,Z> info though it is on the db; another may omit when there is info on the db. Does anyone have any idea why this could be happening? I’ve checked everything I can think of and referred back to the manual.
I have used a similiar setup with LibreOffice 6 without problems.
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Wich database do you use?
Version of LibreOffice?
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Are your fields parts of a table or a query? Any concatenations with || ? Any fields empty/NULL ?
LibreOffice 7.5.3.2; Used LibreOffice Spreadsheet to make database; registered; fields would be part of a table; substantial number of fields are empty which is why I’m using the hidden paragraph field annexed to each. The example below is for a cellphone #; if there is no cellphone number listed, the area should just be ignored:
I added the field by going to more fields; clicking on “hidden paragraph” and adding in comments for that field - ![MyBookDB.FullInfo.Cellphone]
It shows up when viewing fields on document as HiddenParagraphMyBookDB.FullInfo.Cellphone
As mentioned, it works “most” of the time but then will skip entries, leaving blank when info is in the corresponding field of db? Thanks for any help you can provide.
After LOTS of thinking, experimenting, etc., I think I found the issue and will post here for more experienced folks to comment on. My FIELD NAME contained commas! After sleeping on it one more night, it came to me that commas are frequently used in databases to separate items and it may be messing up the merge. Tried it again, changing the field name omitting the commas and it appears to work correctly!
Great job!
It would be nice if you prepared a sample showing the problem, and created a bug report about this.
I’m not so sure it is a bug–a memory came back that commas are used to delineate in spreadsheets so they should not be used in fields? I tried to paste a sample on a post here but the actual full field would not copy and paste, just the field name.
No report - no hope. Have a report with a sample - can see and either fix, or - maybe improve problem reporting, documentation, etc. But of course, it’s up to you.
It would be nice if you upload a test .odt template based on which the MailMerge process is based and the corresponding .ods document, the data generation for which produces unexpected results. I tried to reproduce the error with commas in the merge field name, but everything worked correctly.
comma_field.ods (14.6 KB) (data source with column “Home C,S,Z”
comma_field.odb (2.1 KB) Base document
comma_field.odt (14.2 KB) mail merge
The mail merge works as expected. 6 records are merged to 2 print pages with 3 complete records each.
Yes, looks like what I had but didn’t work consistently… I will make a note for next week to attach like you did what I have in case there’s something that was incorrectly entered. It is working now, but would like to know what I had been doing wrong. Thanks for your help.
I copied all the info to upload here; however, when I ran the merge, it worked. So, the end result is I have no clue WHY it wasn’t working the initial hour I put into it other than it was operator error. When I re-did the fields omitting the commas, it worked. However, BECAUSE I re-did it, I must have corrected an initial error as well, despite not seeing it. Thank you all for your help; I sure learned a lot about mail merge going through this!