Mail Merge Type Report

[knowshowrosegrows]

I am having trouble getting my head around the tables I would need to produce
the following document.

I have two hundred agencies that each get a letter.
There are nine categories of one-time only funds that they might be eligible
for.
So agency A gets fund categories 1, 4 & 7. Agency B only gets funds 3.
There is aspecific paragraph that goes in the body of the letter that
explains each of these 9 categories of funds.
So Agency A's letter will have paragraph 1, 4 & 7 and agency B will only
have paragraph 3.
In my muddy thinking, I know I need a table of agency info and a primary
Agency ID.
I also need a table of paragraphs (memo fields) and a primary Paragraph ID.
Do I need a table that combines them together that has a "Combo ID" as
Primary and the Agency ID and Paragraph ID as Foreign?
The relationship between Agency and Combo is One to One?
The relationship between Combo and Paragraph is One to Many?

So, what kind of form would I build to input these records?

 

[Evi]

Are the 'Paragraphs' individual for each Fund or is there 'boiler plate'
text which they all contain with variations for each Fund (like a Word Mail
Merge)?
Evi

 

[knowshowrosegrows]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, this is exactly like a mail merge. The
paragraphs are boiler plate. I am just not sure how to designate which
agency gets which paragraphs. Each letter may have a different combination
of paragraphs.
--
Thanks

You all are teaching me so much

Are the 'Paragraphs' individual for each Fund or is there 'boiler plate'
text which they all contain with variations for each Fund (like a Word Mail
Merge)?
Evi

 

[Evi]

I think, (and let others interpose here, with their suggestions please) as
a general guide, you will need
an Agency Table
A Fund table,
A 'Paragraph; table
where all the boiler plate parts of the text are placed are placed which
could apply to any agency

A Letter table which contains links from the Fund table and from the
Paragraph table so that you can assign the correct paragraph (paragraphs) to
each fund.
Perhaps this could also contain any phrases unique to that fund - (or should
that be in yet another table?)
Finally comes the LetterAgency table where the letters are assigned to
different agencies.
You will probably be wanting to use Duane's Concatenate Function at some
stage which concatenates a 'downwards' list of records together in a text
string. This would avoid the need for a table which goes 'across' rather
than down..

(It would be worth a look anyway. It's a real work of art)
http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/Otherdownload.asp?SampleName='Generic F
unction%20To%20Concatenate%20Child%20Records'

I've never tried this sort of report before so it will be interesting to see
how it works out.

Evi

Thanks for your reply. Yes, this is exactly like a mail merge. The
paragraphs are boiler plate. I am just not sure how to designate which
agency gets which paragraphs. Each letter may have a different combination
of paragraphs.