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Confirmation letter

  1. #1
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    Confirmation letter

    Hi, I've used both Excel and Access in the past but it's been a while. I work for a hotel in the admin department. We have these confirmation of booking letters that we send out every time someone makes a reservation. It's irritating going through each letter on word and changing the details for each reservation, a lot of the time something goes wrong and you get a mix up of dates and prices and confirmation numbers. I wanted to use access to create some kind of form that would let me type in all the vital information and dump it right onto the word doc (or similar printable document) but access isn't istalled on the machines here! I figure I can do it in Excel but I want to get a few tips first. Basically I want a first page (or even better, a pop-up box) that says Name, Arrival Date, Departure Date, Confirmation number with little boxes to type everything into, then a little ok button or something that puts all the information entered into all the little boxes onto the existing letter in the correct places ready to print (My use of technical terms amazes even me!)

    Any advice on this would be great. I'm not 100% where to start!

    Thanks

    WIll

  2. #2
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    Hi there,

    Not au fait with Access, but you could do this with Excel and Word by doing a mail merge. Very simple, and very useful. Lots of tutorials online, just Google it. Here's one to get started:

    http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/he...349201033.aspx

    HTH,

    SamuelT

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    ----------
    Last edited by CreaturesFarley; 05-13-2008 at 09:10 AM.

  4. #4
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    Hmm, I've had a look at the mail merge, it seems to only let you insert address fields from contacts on the computer. Is there any way that it can be used to insert things like arrival dates, departure dates, confirmation numbers etc....? Please bear in mind that these will have been created in a seperate programme that doesn't allow for easy export to a mail merge.

  5. #5
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    It is definitely possible to manually set up an Excel database with the details you wish to include (name/address/dates in + out etc) and then create a 'mail merge template' document in Word. You're not limited to using data from within Outlook or anything else.

    This template document will consist of the 'standard text' of a confirmation booking and 'mail merge fields' which will hold the 'unique data' contained in Excel.

    The basic procedure I'd use is as follows (I'm NOT a mail merge expert but I have used it a few times and it worked for me):

    1. Create the Excel database with your unique data. It's worth ensuring that the first row of the Excel database contains descriptive headers eg FirstName, Surname etc. Save the file.
    2. Open Word. Enter the 'standard text' which will be common for all confirmations and leave spaces for the unique (Excel) data.
    3. Ensure that the 'Mail merge ' toolbar is visible in Word (View|Toolbars|Mail merge). This has a button to allow you to open the data source (Excel file you've previously saved). Click it and navigate to the Excel file.
    4. In Word, position your mouse at the first place where the unique text is to be shown. On the mail merge toolbar click the 'Insert mail merge fields' icon. This pops up a dialog box which should show the name of the Excel row headers. Double click the relevant row header and repeat the process for all other unique text.
    5. To run the letters, click the 'Merge to new document' icon on the Mail merge toolbar and this will generate the confirmations for the individuals.

    Good luck!

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