Problems with mail merge

users
#1

ubuntu 12.04

I created a google spreadsheet and downloaded it as a CSV file.
I used that as the source of my mailmerge data (presumably using "base" is the only way to use the CSV file, so that's what I did).

I used an existing MS Word file sent to me by a colleague, as my starting document, opened in Writer.

I then entered various Fields from this CSV file (now converted to a "base" file by the mail merge wizard) into my Writer document for purposes of mail merge. The end result mail merge post processed document has the field names, no values. The original document with the fields, does not act as if it has fields - in other words, it's just plain text, not the fields I inserted.

Example: I inserted "Sellers Aggregate1.Sheet1.Owner's Street Address" (a real field) as a field into the doc, and instead of acting like a field, it acts like normal text. I thought perhaps the spaces, periods, apostrophes and/or the length of the field name are causing the problem, but then I realized I did have one field that did not have any of those things, just a simple one word field (other than the additional things added by the mail merge/database mechanism itself).

This is a critical problem for me.

Thank you in advance

- Andrew

#2

Hi Andrew,

I can think of a few things that might (but then again, might not) be
the cause :

- using DOC format for your mailmerge instead of ODT - as I've never
tried mailmerge in LO with a DOC formatted file (I always use ODT), I
can't say ;

- using fields with spaces and apostrophes (yes, I see that you have
escaped them with double quotes, but you never know) ;

- some unseen condition or filtering ;

- a bug :wink: (check out bugzilla for mailmerge bugs) ;

- some missing/faulty component from the Ubuntu provided LO.

Alex

#3

.doc format seems to be the culprit.

Thank you

- Andrew