Updating the Preview in Your Mail Merge Docs so You See Different Data in Every Field

This is a very specific but annoying problem for which I've found a workaround (thanks to the smart folks in the training department at MASCO! ;> ).

A Little Background: Synchronize
So, you've got a mail merge doc. It's labels. You've set it up to Synchronize, so that when you make a change to the upper left address and click Synchronize, all other addresses take on the same updates. I.e. if you make the text blue, or insert a graphic, or whatever, you just make the change in one place and it updates all the others. This is a very nice feature.

Here's where you set synchronize. File > New > Labels, and in the Options tab select Synchronize contents.

Here's what a new sheet of labels looks like with the Synchronize floating button:

Here's what it looks like when you change the formatting for the upper left address:

Here's what it looks like when you then click Synchronize:

A Little Background: Preview
As you can see above, you see the field names, not the field contents, in mail merge documents. To see the contents, press F4 to view your data sources. Expand the data source you're using, select the table you're using, click the blank gray box that's circled to select all the rows, and click the also-circled icon called Data to Fields.

Here's what it all looks like.

But! What Happens When You Preview, Then Synchronize???????
Let's say you've previewed so you can see the data .Then you think, "Hey, the font needs to be different, and I want it to be green." So you make that change to the upper left frame like normal, you click Synchronize....and you get this. All the content is the same.

Don't Worry: It's Easy to Fix
You just click that same Data to Fields icon. Select all the data just like before, click the Data to Fields icon again, and this refreshes the display and gives you back the normal content.

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Comments

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[Lorinda]

Note that sometimes the Table Data toolbar (the one with the Data to Fields icon) doesn't appear. Unfortunately there does not seem to be any way to turn it back on from within the program. In order to make it reappear, you have to rename the user directory. This is a drastic solution, as you lose a lot of other preferences. I use NeoOffice, a Mac port/fork of OpenOffice.org, and I was able to trace the problem down to the registry folder within the user folder/directory.

Because of this, users should be warned never to close the Table Data Toolbar.

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This is a drastic solution, as you lose a lot of other preferences. I use NeoOffice, a Mac port/fork of OpenOffice.org, and I was able to trace the problem down to the registry folder within the user folder/directory.

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This is a drastic solution, as you lose a lot of other preferences. I use NeoOffice, a Mac port/fork of OpenOffice.org, and I was able to trace the problem down to the registry folder within the user folder/directory.

[Bona Miller]

I am trying to print labels from my Open Office database. I have followed these directions and they work great; however, I get only one page of labels. I have 130 names to print onto labels. How do I get the rest of the names from the database onto the labels?

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