[PLUG] Mail merge: finally working!

[Rich Shepard]

  I _finally_ found an algorithm that permitted me to get data into a format
that OO would recognize properly for a mail merge operation (90 letters). I
sent this to the OO mail list and provide a copy for those of you who may
want to avoid the day-and-a-half it took me to work this out.

  "Office productivity" software? Ha! I still want to get a copy of WP
running again.

Rich
---------- Forwarded message ----------

  Here's what I did to get OO to properly recognize my data and use it to
create the final letters.

  Data started in a csv-formatted file (that's Comma Separated Values), with
double quotation marks delimiting text strings and commas separating fields.

  Data imported into XessSE, my linux spreadsheet. Zip codes (I had trimmed
them to 5 digits long before) were assumed to be numeric, despite being
surrounded by quotes. So I click on the column head and change the format to
"Text". Next, I use the search and replace function to remove the leading
'=' from the zip codes (remnants from when they were numbers). Finally, I
save the data in .xls format.

  Invoke OO. Open new doc, specifying the .xls spreadsheet. A calc window
opens over the blank writer window. Try to save by all means possible -- as
noted in my previous message -- and they all fail. Finally, I tell the
program to quit (via the File menu). Now, this is the important part: as
soon as the blank writer document window closes a dialog box pups up telling
me the spreadsheet should be saved, and do I want to save it in OO format? I
answer, "yes" and this time it actually works! Apparently the key is hveing
only the spreadsheet window open; the blank writer window screws up the save
process when changing format from the native import to native OO.

  Now, start OO over again. Open template latter. Select File -> Form letter
and this time, Voila!, it actually works as needed! All 90 letters are
printing now as I write this.

  I hope that I've provided sufficient details for the problems to be
identified and fixed. If not, contact me and I'll give you whatever
information you need.

  What an ordeal!

Rich

Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President

                       Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
            2404 SW 22nd Street | Troutdale, OR 97060-1247 | U.S.A.
 + 1 503-667-4517 (voice) | + 1 503-667-8863 (fax) | rshepard at appl-ecosys.com
                         http://www.appl-ecosys.com