M
Matt Houston
hey, need help with this, would be very grateful.
basically i need to do a mail merge. my work has a database containing
information on our agents, and each agent is represented by a terminal
id, a
4 character code eg DOT1. one of the things the database contains is
the
staff members of the agents, there can be any amount between 1 and 30,
but
lets say average of 10.
we need to send out a letter to each agent, listing the members of
staff for
the agent to confirm whether they still work there or not so that we
can
update our database accordingly.
so i get our IT dept to give me the info i need off of the database (i
cant
as of yet run these kind of reports myself), and I get the following
info:
agent terminal id (field 1)
agent name (field 2)
address 1
address 2
address 3
town
postcode
staffmembers (field 3)
for simplicity sakes lets make make agent name, addresses 1 to 3, town
and
post code all the same field, address, and here comes the tricky bit,
the
only way the info can be given to me is like this (picture as excel
spreadsheet:
field1 field2 field3
DOT1 AGENT1 JIM MORRISOON
DOT1 AGENT1 CHARLES BRONSON
DOT1 AGENT1 NELSON MANDELA
CLNM AGENT2 AXLE ROSE
CLNM AGENT2 TIGER WOODS
U788 AGENT3 GEORGE BUSH
see the problem?
for each letter I want the address at the top, the terminal id, and
then the
staff members listed, but it doesnt really seem simple when the address
and
terminal id are given for each staff member every time.
the only idea i came up with is to have 2 separate spreadhseets, one
for
address and one for staff, then use the terminal id to say "for this
terminal id use address spreadhsheet and place corressponding address
here,
and use the staff spreadsheet to add corressponding staff here"....but
how
the hell would i do a thing like that....not possible is it. and
further
problem is how would you mail merge a field where the number of
'instances'
(if you will) of the field can be variable, after all there can be
anyhere
up to 30 staff members.
please help, if i pull this one of my boss will very impressed.
regards
Adrian
basically i need to do a mail merge. my work has a database containing
information on our agents, and each agent is represented by a terminal
id, a
4 character code eg DOT1. one of the things the database contains is
the
staff members of the agents, there can be any amount between 1 and 30,
but
lets say average of 10.
we need to send out a letter to each agent, listing the members of
staff for
the agent to confirm whether they still work there or not so that we
can
update our database accordingly.
so i get our IT dept to give me the info i need off of the database (i
cant
as of yet run these kind of reports myself), and I get the following
info:
agent terminal id (field 1)
agent name (field 2)
address 1
address 2
address 3
town
postcode
staffmembers (field 3)
for simplicity sakes lets make make agent name, addresses 1 to 3, town
and
post code all the same field, address, and here comes the tricky bit,
the
only way the info can be given to me is like this (picture as excel
spreadsheet:
field1 field2 field3
DOT1 AGENT1 JIM MORRISOON
DOT1 AGENT1 CHARLES BRONSON
DOT1 AGENT1 NELSON MANDELA
CLNM AGENT2 AXLE ROSE
CLNM AGENT2 TIGER WOODS
U788 AGENT3 GEORGE BUSH
see the problem?
for each letter I want the address at the top, the terminal id, and
then the
staff members listed, but it doesnt really seem simple when the address
and
terminal id are given for each staff member every time.
the only idea i came up with is to have 2 separate spreadhseets, one
for
address and one for staff, then use the terminal id to say "for this
terminal id use address spreadhsheet and place corressponding address
here,
and use the staff spreadsheet to add corressponding staff here"....but
how
the hell would i do a thing like that....not possible is it. and
further
problem is how would you mail merge a field where the number of
'instances'
(if you will) of the field can be variable, after all there can be
anyhere
up to 30 staff members.
please help, if i pull this one of my boss will very impressed.
regards
Adrian