Migrating MailMege LibreOffice On Win 10 to Linux Mint in VMware

[BossMan]

Hello @ Libre Office

I am trying to do two things:-

1. Learn Linux Mint (in VMware)
2. Migrate LibreOffice Files and MailMerge

For the most part I believe I have Linux Mint running well and have migrated the equivalent of C:\Users\Terry\AppData\Roaming\LibreOffice\4\user ( Roaming) into this Linux Mint Folder location: Linux: home > terry**** > .config > libreoffice > 4 > user.

This left the issue of Users\Terry\AppData\Local\LibreOffice. This folder is where I keep all matters MailMerge in essence templates for starting predefined Letter headings and Envelopes. Clicking on when of this brings up for example an A4 letter with address database fields in it. When this is booted and PRINT clicked it brings up a database of contacts from which you select those who you want to populate the address letter heading. This works well in Win 10

I did not know where to put this local folder, so I put it in the same linux mint folder i.e Users>terry**** > .config > libreoffice > 4 > user (LibreOffice) When I click on any of the templates I get a message "The data source “contacts” was not found. The connection to the data source could not be established. Please check the connection settings. The database appears to be registered in Tools>Options>LibreOffice Base>Database as it is showing under registered databases.

So I cannot get it it to connect to the database. Any ideas?

I should add mailmerge works superbly on my Windows 10 machine.

I have looked in a lot of linux mint forums to address this problem to no avail.

I would be grateful for any help.

Terry

[Villeroy]

Mail merge involves the following files:

1. A data source, which is a spreadsheet in most cases.
2. A Base document connected to the spreadsheet and presenting spreadsheet contents as if it were a database.
3. A serial letter in Writer’s native *.odt format. It contains mail merge fields as place holders. When you turn on the full names of the fields (Ctrl+F9), you see the full reference as Database_Name.Table_Or_Query_Name.Column_Name.

So copy all your documents to your home directory and register the Base document as Database_Name.
P.S. The connection between spreadsheet and Base document is stored in the Base document as a relative path. If this connection is broken, open the Base document and call menu:Edit>Database>Properties… to fix the spreadsheet path.

[iplaw67]

The red herring seems to be the configuration file telling you that the database is registered. You need to copy the actual database file to a suitable folder in your Mint installation, not necessarily to the config folder, and then adjust the path to it accordingly in the registered database setting of LO.

You should also check that your templates containing the fields for mailmerge also have the correct path to the connected database.

[BossMan]

Hello Villeroy & iplaw67

Just to say how grateful I am to you for your suggestions. Villeroy’s answer was the solution. I now am able to do MailMerge. Also I have learnt a great deal and will continue to do so.

Thanks again