Mail Merge issue

[kkathy]

I work at a school and use mail merge all of the time to send out letters to students. I am having an issue if the merge includes numbering. If I have instructions numbered 1 through 5, the first letter is perfect, the next student's letter has the numbers 6 through 10, instead of 1 through 5 like the original, the next letter's numbers are 11 through 15. How do I get the numbering to start over with number one for each student's letter?

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

This sounds like Word's attempt at numbering based on format of the document. I'm not a Word Guru, but that would be my best educated guess given what I know. Have you tried this function with any other document using numbering like this? It may be necessary for you to edit your document after merging. It also may be simpler than looking for days for a solution.

Just my two pence.

 

[kkathy]

The merged file may create hundreds of letters so going in manually and editing the letters would be way too time consuming. Uggg.... I hope that someone can help me figure this out.

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

LOL!

Sorry. This sucks to have to say, but even M$ says the same.

Google: mail merge numbering list word

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/251234

Sounds like you have Word 2000. As this apparently is fixed in later releases.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/245021

 

[kkathy]

Silverhazesurfer: I am using Word 2007 so somehow that issue still seems to be around. Your posting that included the MS link was actually very helpful. I removed the automatic numbering on my original letter and then manually added the numbers. When I did the mail merge, all of the numbering was correct. I am a happy camper. Thank you very much!

See below what helped me from the MS site that you posted: I used Method 2:

Method 2: Manually Number List
To manually number the list in the main document of your catalog mail merge, clear the Automatic numbered lists check box. To do this, follow these steps:
On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect.
On the AutoFormat As You Type tab, click to clear the Automatic numbered lists check box.
Click OK to close the AutoCorrect dialog box.

NOTE: If the main document of your catalog mail merge already contains an automatically numbered list, select the list and press CTRL+Q. This removes the automatic numbering. Then, manually number each list before you continue with your catalog mail merge.

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

Ahh. The automatic way to manually number. Nice. Good to hear you got a satisfactory solution.