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Mail Merge - letters are a little different

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    Mail Merge - letters are a little different

    Hello,

    I'm trying to mail a large batch of letters with mail merge, but each letter has a difference that does not follow any pattern.

    Each person has paid for one or more raffle tickets and the letter needs to include all of their ticket numbers. (I definitely don't want to send one letter per raffle ticket, since many people have purchased several tickets).

    Any tips for doing a mail merge that results in only one letter for each person and includes all of their ticket numbers in one shot?

    Examples attached.

    Thanks for your help.
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by RookA1; 02-14-2019 at 11:56 AM. Reason: Solved

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    Forum Moderator - RIP Richard Buttrey's Avatar
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    Re: Mail Merge - letters are a little different

    Hi,

    I thik the approach I'd adopt is to use a couple of helper columns and an Advanced Data Filter

    In G2 copied down
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    In H2 copied down
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    obviously adjust for the last row.

    Then use the Advanced Filter to extract columns A, & C:F, to a new output area using the column H label and the value 1 as the criteria.

    You'll then have a unique list of names and a single cell containing the Raffle IDs
    Richard Buttrey

    RIP - d. 06/10/2022

    If any of the responses have helped then please consider rating them by clicking the small star icon below the post.

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    Re: Mail Merge - letters are a little different

    The G2 step makes sense and should be a huge help. Thank you, Richard. Is there any way to get the data to stack up vertically, instead of separated by commas?

    I'm unfamiliar with the advanced filter feature for the H2 step, but working on looking that up now.

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    Re: Mail Merge - letters are a little different

    Hi,

    Jus change the G2 formula to
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    i.e. replace the comma with the line feed character 10.

    I've added a macro - see below in the attached workbook. Click the button to run it.



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    Attached Files Attached Files

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    Re: Mail Merge - letters are a little different

    You don't need to mess with the workbook for this. Instead, you can use Word's Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge facility (the terminology depends on the Word version). To see how to do so with any mailmerge data source supported by Word, check out my Microsoft Word Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge Tutorial at:
    http://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-m...-tutorial.html
    or:
    http://www.gmayor.com/Zips/Catalogue%20Mailmerge.zip
    The tutorial covers everything from list creation to the insertion & calculation of values in multi-record tables in letters. Do read the tutorial before trying to use the mailmerge document included with it.

    Although the field coding for this can be complex, the tutorial document includes working field codes for all of its examples, so most of the hard work has already been done for you - you should be able to do little more than copy/paste the relevant field codes into your own mailmerge main document, substitute/insert your own field names and adjust the formatting to get the results you desire. For some worked examples, see the attachments to the posts at:
    http://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-m...html#post23345
    http://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-m...html#post30327

    Another option would be to use a DATABASE field in a normal ‘letter’ mailmerge main document and a macro to drive the process. An outline of this approach can be found at: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/o...1-1996c14dca5d
    Conversely, if you're using a relational database or, Excel workbook with a separate table with just a single instance of each of the grouping criteria, a DATABASE field in a normal ‘letter’ mailmerge main document could be used without the need for a macro. An outline of this approach can be found at:
    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...f-8642e46fa103
    For a working example, see:
    http://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-m...-multiple.html

    Alternatively, you may want to try one of the Many-to-One Mail Merge add-ins, from:
    Graham Mayor at http://www.gmayor.com/ManyToOne.htm; or
    Doug Robbins at https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=5AEDC...43615E886B!566
    Cheers,
    Paul Edstein
    [Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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    Re: Mail Merge - letters are a little different

    Thank you for the additional information, macropod. I didn't test it out, because it was 'project complete' on my end before I saw your answer. But I'll mark this one as Solved for future users with the same problem and they can explore both options.

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