I’m using Avery 8371 business cards which is 2 columns of 5 cards each per sheet. When I insert my First Name and Last Name fields from my database the mail merge produces one database record per sheet instead of one per card. How do I get the card mail merge to work the same way as the label merge, ie 10 cards for 10 different names per sheet? For example, if I have a database of 10 names I should get one sheet of 10 cards, each card having a different name, but what I actually get is 10 pages of cards with each page being 10 cards of identical names. Is it possible to get one sheet of 10 cards for 10 different records in the database?
Actually I’ve found the solution to this with Insert Other Fields Next Record.
While that may work, it appears there is a problem (bug - report at Bugzilla) in that on initial dialog for Business Cards, there is no method for selecting fields from databases or tables. If instead you chose to create labels, you would still be able to select Avery 8371 business cards and additionally be able to set DB fields and eliminate the “Next Record” issue as this is automatically taken care of.
I received a notification by email of your reply which said “View Topic or reply to this email to respond” so I replied to the email but have now received an error message telling me that the mail cannot be delivered, so perhaps a change to the notification system is required. Anyway, here is the response that was sent by email:
“Yes, thanks, I had tried various combinations of file>new>label and file>new>business card but found the only way to get what I needed was to populate the Avery 8371 type of label with everything except the individual names, save that as an .odt document and then use Insert>Field>More Fields to get the database fields into the cards and advance the record.”
Comment is understood but not certain how to get changes to the Discourse software done (possibly a question posted with Meta tag).
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This is baffling as how you can add only some information. Through all the years of testing this have not experienced it. Also as noted, with business cards I could not add anything as the DB selection was completely empty. You should consider filing a bug report on these items.
I think I haven’t explained the scenario very well. What I’ve done is create the card manually as an 8371 label, using fonts and images needed for the card and manipulating everything to the desired layout, without retrieving anything from a database. I then Insert>Fields>More Fields from the database to the spot where I want the name to appear and insert a next record field, then “synchronize” cards and run the mail merge.
This is a much better explanation. However you should be able to use the label process, add the fields from the DB then before the merge add fonts & images and sync that. Then you can produce the printed result.
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Bottom line is - whatever works best for you.
I would do so if only I could figure out how! I find this a very cumbersone and non-intuitive messaging system.