word 2003 merge for labels using excel db

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I am helping someone that has an excel database using word 2003 to merge and print labels. There are about 20 pages of labels, but using merge only prints first and last page. Any suggestions on what the problem is? You can flip through the merged document and see that all pages are present, the print diag is set to print All.

thanks

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Your message is a tad confusing. You say that there are 20 pages of labels, but that “merge prints only the first and last.” I am a tad confused, because you normally don’t use merge twice against the same data. Typically, you either merge directly to the printer, or merge to a new document, then use the regular print function to print the document.

I usually do the latter, for two reasons. First, it enables me to troubleshoot and validate the merge before I commit to paper. Second, I can save the merged document as a permanent record of the merge operation.

David A. Gray

Designing for the Ages, One Challenge at a Time

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The merge either to printer or to document gave the same results, page one and the last page. Ended up creating a new document and resetting up the merge feature and it worked. Not sure what the problem was.

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I’m not sure if this is your problem, but…

The only process that is not intuitive in a mail merge (in 2003 and newer) is when doing labels. When you are finished adding merge fields to the first label, you must press the Propagate Labels icon on the Mail Merge toolbar in order to have the merge fields in the first label copied to all of the labels.

I hope this helps.

Fred

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Fred,

The only process that is not intuitive in a mail merge (in 2003 and newer) is when doing labels. When you are finished adding merge fields to the first label, you must press the Propagate Labels icon on the Mail Merge toolbar in order to have the merge fields in the first label copied to all of the labels.

That’s an outstanding point!

It’s one that I didn’t discover for years, leading me to propagate the labels manually.

For the benefit of lurkers, the same is true in Word 2002, and probably all previous versions, but it’s been too long since the last time I used Word 2000, let alone Word 97 and Word 6, so I cannot say for certain about whether those versions have the propagate labels button.

David A. Gray

Designing for the Ages, One Challenge at a Time

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The Mail Merge Wizard was revised substantially in Word 2002, and the Propagate Labels button appeared at that time. Prior versions did Mail Merges in quite a different fashion.

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Wendell,

The Mail Merge Wizard was revised substantially in Word 2002, and the Propagate Labels button appeared at that time. Prior versions did Mail Merges in quite a different fashion.

Thanks for adding that detail, and saving me digging out and firing up one of the two old laptop computers that still have working installations of Office 2000. I suppose that it’s safe to say, then, that Word 97 behaves more or less like Word 2000, as does (probably) Word 6.

David A. Gray

Designing for the Ages, One Challenge at a Time

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