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Old October 1st, 2009, 04:28 PM posted to microsoft.public.publisher
MaggieDonuts
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Posts: 12
Default Postcard Mail Merge - 4 per page difficulties

Glad I could be of help, I know since I also spent hours trying to get it
right...but the client responses I get make it worthwhile!

"Patana Banana" wrote:

It works, but, boy, did I get a work out on this issue!

"Ed Bennett" wrote:

office mom wrote:
OK - I just spent 45 minutes reading through all the old posts and trying
different things. Finally, I went to WORD and made the back of the postcards
using an Avery Label and now I will print the fronts in Publisher by just
turning the paper over for the printer. This whole thing is insane.
Hopefully Microsoft will fix this in future versions of Publisher.


This DOES work in all versions of Publisher I've tried it in. You have
to design a SINGLE postcard on screen, and then set the Page Setup such
that it repeats the design across the page. PROVIDED you design it like
this, then the Print Preview showing the same details is a bug (it reads
the first record and puts it everywhere just to give an idea of the
design), and the printout should be fine.

Where problems arise is when you try to design a single sheet of cards
at once. This is obviously doomed to failure since there is no sensible
way of telling Publisher where to switch records.

by allowing
you to insert your own "next field" merge code. (Word Perfect lets you do
that.)


I always puzzle when people ask where this is in Publisher, or suggest
it be added. How on Earth would it be done?! It makes perfect sense in a
linear text-oriented application - once the Next Record is hit,
the current record is incremented. However, in a frame-oriented
application like Publisher, which field codes would come before and after?

--
Ed Bennett - MVP Microsoft Publisher
http://ed.mvps.org