Word cannot merge a graphic or OLE-object directly from a database because it does not understand the type of data the database sends across (long binary). Therefore, you have to workaround this obstacle.

Sometimes, you want to create a mail merge where you can list several items for one particular category, such as the invoices for each customer. Word does not have an automatic facility for this kind of merge, but there are workarounds.

Word mail merge doesn't provide any way to generate a chart for each record in a mail merge. There are four basic approaches you can use to create charts for mail merge:

• Create a chart for each record in Excel. Add a column to the data table and enter the name of the appropriate chart for each record. Use this merge field in LINK field in the mail merge document.
• Use a Database field in the main merge document to create a data table for each merge record (for details, see http://www.knowhow.com/Guides/DatabaseInfo/DatabaseInfo.htm). Select the table and link it to an MS Graph. Preview the merge data, one record at a time, and print as you go. (Executing the merge would remove the bookmark that links the table to the chart, so you'd get the same chart for all records.)
• Create the chart for each record in the mail merge result document, after the mail merge has executed.
• Create the charts on-the-fly, as the mail merge executes, in the main merge document.

The first three can be done manually, and are possible in all versions of Word; using VBA (macros) would make the process much faster, of course.

The fourth method relies on the Mail Merge Events introduced in Word 2002 to manipulate the main merge document as each record is merged. The sample files in MrgChart.zip provided here uses this method, automating an MS Graph object embedded in the main merge document. You can certainly derive the code necessary automating for the third method based on the code in this sample, as all the basics required for automating MS Graph are present.

The Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language allows you to control other MS Office applications using OLE-Automation. While versions of Word using Word Basic (prior to Word97) lack the capability of being able to use this method to run other programs, Excel and Access can control Word through the Word Basic commands.

Therefore, if you'd like to have Access interact with Word 6 or 7, and especially if you want to send Access information into Word, the best way is to use OLE-Automation from within Access. The procedures are too lengthy to include in an FAQ, so I've provided a zip file containing a sample Access 95 database, sample Word 95 template (no macros) and an explanatory Word document which you can download. (WdAcc95.zip, 51KB)

If you need to run Access from Word, you must use either DDE (see the Help files for Access and Word for examples) or the Word add-in wbodbc.wll which is on the diskette included in the Word Developer's Kit (ISBN 1-55615-880-7). It can also be downloaded from the GO MSWORD library on CompuServe and might be available on the Microsoft web-site, although "free stuff" for versions prior to Office97 are being phased out.

The WordBasic Help files for Word 6/95 that you need in order to automate these versions of Word can be downloaded from the Word MVP website.

There are a couple of tricks to creating a multi-columned address book or telephone list using Word's mail merge, but the steps are not difficult :-)

1. In Tools/Mail Merge create a Catalog type of merge, rather then form letter. This will ensure that there are no section or page breaks between the records.
   (In Word 2002 the type of merge is Directory, and you set it either in the first step of the Mail merge wizard, or using the first button of the Mail merge toolbar.)
2. Insert all the mail merge fields and text in the main merge document as you would like each address block to appear. Keep in mind that any text you type will appear with each record.
3. Set the number of columns you want.
4. Press enter a couple of time after the last line of information in order to create some space between the addresses (or use Paragraph spacing, followed by one empty paragraph with no spacing).
5. Select all paragraphs except the last two) and apply Format/Paragraph/Text Flow/Keep with Next and Keep Lines together so that the address blocks will not break across columns or pages.
6. Pre-sort the listing using the Query Options.

Note that catalog type merges will not retain any headers and footers! This is because the last paragraph mark, which contains the header/footer information and is also a Next Page type of section break, is cut off of each record as it is merged. You must either create header/footer information in the merge result or insert a continuous section break just before the last paragraph mark of the main merge document. The drawback with the latter is that this will insert a section break between each merged record and this is not compatible when the document is formatted for columns.

Using SET and IF fields in the main merge document you can generate "Index Headers" for grouped address blocks. You will need to include the item you want to group on as a field in the data source since Word does not allow you to use TEXT functions in its fields. For example, if you want to group all records where the last name starts with the same letter you must include a field in the data source to contain that letter and enter the information, either manually or using a macro.

In the main merge document create an IF field at the top of the address block and a SET field at the end of it. (How to use fields)

Example: { IF { REF Index } <> { MERGEFIELD INITIAL } "-- { MERGEFIELD INITIAL } --¶" }
          { MERGEFIELD LASTNAME }, { MERGEFIELD FIRSTNAME }
          { MERGEFIELD PHONE }{ SET Index { MERGEFIELD INITIAL } }
Display   -- A --
          Anonymous, Jane
          999 000-9999 

          Anonymous, Joe
          000 999-0000

In order for this to work properly, be sure to NOT have the first record updated before running the merge. If necessary, view a record that does not have the first "index" value just before merging.

As mentioned in the previous discussion, Word will repeat all the text in the main merge document when merging to a catalog (directory). It is possible, however, to define text to only appear at the beginning of the document by using an If field to check whether the record being merged is the first one. If so, then the text is displayed, otherwise not:

A similar construct can be used to add text to the end of a catalog/directory merge. It is not possible, however, to automatically determine which is the last record. Instead, you need to insert the number by hand, or you can use a macro to do so, as in the following sample. Here, the number of records is stored in a document property (File/Property), and a DocProperty field passes the value to the field.

Similarly to point 2 for a complex merge, or for creating an index header in the catalog merge, here again you can use a combination of SET and IF fields in the main merge document to check for duplicate information and suppress merge fields for a record if they are the same as in the previously merged record. As for the other merge types, here you also need to pre-sort the records before merging.

Example:

Often, when creating large, complex documents, it would be advantageous to store and manage blocks of formatted "boiler-plate" text outside the data source. A good method is to create a document where each block of "boiler-plate" is marked with a bookmark. It is easy to centrally manage and maintain a set of such documents.

In the main merge document, this information is pulled in by using a IncludeText field, on the same principle as the IncludePicture field when merging a picture (see above). Usually, the block of text should be inserted according to a condition or the bookmark name stored in the data source.

Example: