Modify “Merged Documents”

We may at any time modify our “Merged Documents”.
We can amend it in many ways, we can customize each merged field, we can format the letter and change the format of the fields, all in the same way as we would for a normal “Document”.
We can also customize the letter we got from our table and change field names.
For example, suppose we have changed the “Name” to “First Name” in our table, then we have to change the merged document also, otherwise the data will not be displayed correctly.
“Word” will show us this, with the pop-up window “Invalid Merge Field” when we want to see a Sample Letter.
In this window we can remove the field, or we can replace it with a valid field from the database by clicking on the black arrow, and making a choice.

After each change you must save the document.

Debugging

It is sometimes useful to us to check for errors in “Merged document” .
To do this we open our “Merged document”, and click on the “Check for Errors” (“Check for Errors“) in the “Mail Merge” toolbar (“Mail Merge“).

If this toolbar is not visible, choose “View” – “Toolbars” – “Mail Merge” in the menu bar.
Clicking this button, displays the “Checking and Reporting Errors” (Checking and Reporting Errors) dialog.
In this dialog, we select the method to display the errors.
Usually the option “Simulate the merge and report errors in a new document” (“Simulate the merge and report errors in a new document“) is the most obvious.

Click OK when you have made a choice.
If there are no errors, Word will report this in a window.
If there are errors, “Word” will also report it in the “Invalid Merge Field” dialog.
Click the “Delete Field” dialog box, select “Insert Merge Field”, select the appropriate field and click “Insert”.

For those of you who have forgotten how to open this dialog:
This was in the fourth window of the “Merge Wizard” (“Mail Merge Wizard ..”.).
In the “Task pane” click on “More Items” (“More items“).

Insert and delete fields

To remove fields from our “Merged document”, select the field completely (with the greater than and less than brackets) and click the “Delete” button on your keyboard.
To insert fields in the (2003 and XP) versions, click the “insert merge field” (“Insert Merge Field“) button in the “Merged doument”  in the “Mail merge” toolbar.
Choose your field from the list, and click “Insert”.

To add fields (2000 and ’97) it is basically the same, place the cursor in the document where you want the field.
Now click the “Insert Merge Fields” button in the toolbar to “merge”, but select the field from the dropdown menu.

Creating fields

We can create our merge fields as we would format any other piece of text in “Word”.
Select the merge field, including the ‘<<‘ and ‘>>’ characters, and use the buttons in the Formatting toolbar as you would with “normal” text.

Uncoupling of merged “Documents”

When we have created a “Merged document”, “Word” will also treat it as a “Merged document”, ie each time you open this, “Word” will automatically merge the data, and displays the “Mail Merge” toolbar.
To disengage the “Merged document” in 2003 and XP we use the “Mail Merge” toolbar.
Click on the “Main Document Setup” button  (“Main Document Setup“) in the “Mail Merge” toolbar.
Choose “Normal Word document” (“Normal Word document“) in the dialog box and click OK.

To “release” a document in 2000 and ’97, click the “Mail Merge helper” button  in the “Mail Merge toolbar”.
The dialog box opens.
Choose “Create” – “Restore to Normal Word Document”.

Click “Yes”.
Click “Close” .
Make changes to your “Document” and save it.

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