MS Access and MS Word MailMerge

[tgall]

I have a custom MS Word template linked to an MS Access query. The template is a for lab reports.


The initial template is called a "letter" template -- one query record per report.

I'd like to modify the report by inserting a subform as a "directory" template -- one query shows all records.

Any ideas on how to pull this off?

[HiTechCoach]

TIP: NEVER do a mail merge against an Access database. Always export the data to CVS file and merge with the text file.

The simplest solution in to use an Access report. With Access 2007 and later the new Rich Text abilities allow you to do somereally nice formatting.

As you have probably figured out, Word mail merge only works with a single record from the merge source.

The only way I have been able to make a Word document simulate a sub report is to use Word Automation and a lot of VBA code. Basically I had to write my own mail merge functionality.

Don't let word attached to you running mdb file.
Again, this is just common sense. A large portion of word merge examples actually let word OPEN your mdb file. This is a formula for disaster. Allowing word to open the mdb file means that you have to deal with some known bugs (like word launching a second copy of ms-access for example). Further, if you implement security in ms-access, now word has to deal with passwords and permissions (again, a huge can of worms). Worse is if you have the runtime of ms-access installed, or multiple versions of ms-access, then word can again cause all kinds of problems as it tries to launch ms-access, and it might even launch the wrong version of ms-access. I could again rant on for pages here, but I think any developer can clearly see that if we prevent word from trying to attach to the ms-access mdb file, then we avoid a TON OF POSSIBLE problems. Again, since we CAN control this, then lets do so. As a result, my sample merge code DOES NOT let word attached to the mdb file. As a result, it is rock solid. As a result, it just works!

From: http://www.kallal.ca/wordmerge/page2.html