Calc data in Writer

users
#1

All,

I have a small Calc file of information I want to put into Writer - like
mail merge, but the data is not address. What is the best way to do
this?

The data is actually: Date, Sender, Subject, Description, Comment. Waht
I want to do is something like this:

Date Sender Subject Description/Comment
1/15/14 Mr. Black Order Conf. Confirmed the order.
                                  Will be able to ship by 2/1/14

1/16/14 (me) Ship date Shipping date 1/30, UPS

2/1/14 Mr. Black Order Rec'd. Order was delivered.
                                  Customer called to thnak us!

Dave,

#2

I have a small Calc file of information I want to put into Writer - like mail merge, but the data is not address. What is the best way to do this?

Copy and paste? In what sense is this "like mail merge"?

The data is actually: ...
What I want to do is something like this: ...

You've given an extensive layout of some text, which doesn't help much. You haven't said what you wish to do with this if simply copying and pasting into a text document does not suffice. I could paste your material into a text document in less time that it takes to write this.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#3

Hi :slight_smile:
Not sure what happened there, some sort of "bad hair day" or something. I
couldn't see any mention of copy&paste in the original question so i'm
guessing someone got their wires crossed.

There is a guide that covers "mail merge" and that might help;
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications#LibreOffice_Writer_Guide
Also the Faq might help;
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Faq/Writer#Labels_.2F_Mailing
And this hopefully shows how to use a Calc spreadsheet as the data-source;
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Faq/Writer/129
(surely it's more accurate to say an ODF spreadsheet? or a spreadsheet in
Ods format? since such formats are not tied to specific programs)

Of course the question only gave a few rows but i can see how that could
easily grow into many more rows and that different types opf similar
reports might be needed. For example 1 such Writer-report might be needed
to send to Mr Black, another to Mr White and another to Mr Orange. Then
other combinations such as Mr Black and Mr White might be in the same
company and that company might want a report that covers all their people.
Another report might be to your own company and need to included everyone.

If you are likely to need different reports like that then it might be good
to eventually migrate to using a Base Query as the data-source. Base could
use the spreadsheet as it's "external back-end". Then set-up a Query to
pick out the relevant rows. It's then a question of whether to use Base's
Forms or Reports or maybe to still use Writer to present the type of table
you want. If some of those reports are needed more than just as "one offs"
then you might have a new set Query for each of those. Since Queries don't
contain any data themselves they are extremely light so you can hae quite a
lot of them without slowing anything down.

For now though you probably do just need Writer to just use the Calc
spreadsheet directly and then maybe up-scale it sometime in the future.

Please let us know how this goes! Hopefully someone here might be able to
give a better answer later but so far all i have is a kinda rtfm one!
Sorry about that!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#4

All,

Thanks for the replies - I think. First, you can't do this with cut and
paste because the formatting is just columns. This is (hint) like a
database report where the comment field is placed under the description
field (see below). The fields in the spreadsheet are: Date, Sender,
Subject, Description, Comment. What I want is to have all records
printed on one page (or two if needed), not one record per page like
mail merge typically does.

Writer has data sources, and you can select fields, I just have not
figured out how to fill the fields so they are printed like below (one
record after the other).

However, I believe it is possible to use Base to create the report I
want. I'll investigate that approach later today. Any other helpful
suggestions welcome.

Dave,

#5

Hi.
Just a suggestion on a where to look. Nabble will allow you to search this list back if you don't have it in your email for a long time.
I have some vague recollection of a discussion where you can insert something that is like a next record instruction. The layout you want is straight forward in Writer, merging from a sheet as a data source and a next record token will allow multiple records on a page. some stuff here https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=36229
steve

#6

Thanks for the suggestions. I have tried a number of things, and the
bottom line is that LO makes a simple task a real pain in the ass. Many
people keep lists of things in spreadsheets - CD's, photos, tools in a
tool box, contents in the pantry, toys in the toy box, etc. At some
time you may want an easy way to basically print out a formatted report
based on the spreadsheet data. There is no easy way in LO. That fact
needs to change.

I found that using the report functions of Base came the closest to
doing what I want, but doing a custom report is not easy for the casual
user.

My suggestion is to either beef up Writer, or build reports into Calc.
Make them easy to understand and easy to create.

Dave,

#7

Hi,

All,

Thanks for the replies - I think. First, you can't do this with cut and
paste because the formatting is just columns.

I do not understand why. Did you try "Unformatted text" in menu Edit >
Paste Special... ? In my test that produce a table in the text document.

Best regards.
JBF

#8

Hi :slight_smile:
That just produces a static report and needs to be completely redone each
time new data is entered or when data is changed. It might be a good
temporary work-around, especially if it's for just a one-off report.
However i think Dave was looking for something that would update itself
dynamically.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile: