We currently use an Access database on which we store all clients details including addresses and we use Word to type letters.
Is there a straight-forward way to integrate the two so that we do not need to rekey a client's address when typing a letter to him.
I have tried mail merging but this seems to take an age and I haven't found out how to import addresses into Word
Any advice would be welcome
Thanks
Martin
martin curtis
Replies (4)
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We use mail merge...
..but we have our client details in Excel.
I'm sure it must be the same principal - certainly a lot quicker and more reliable that re keying.
Mail merge should be ok
Hi Martin
Once you have set up your letter template as a mail merge document it should take no time at all to select the addressee from the database so that it propagates the name and address fields. This is easier if each client has a unique reference in the database.
Once you have done this it also enables selective mail shots; by adding, for instance, a status field to your database (e.g. C for current, RIP for deceased, M for moved away) you can do a mail shot to all current clients only. The opportunities are enormous, although sending a mail shot to all deceased clients isn't recommended!
Other options
Mail merge seems a bit clunky to me if you're talking about one-off letters.
When you say "re-key," do you mean that literally? If so, why not just copy and paste out of the Access field into the Word doc?
The best option, if you have the confidence to tackle VBA, would be to write a procedure which picks up the address field(s) in Access and writes them to bookmarks in your Word template. I've seen example coding in both the Access programming books I have and would imagine it's in just about every one of those sorts of books.
Once you've got that sorted, you could then improve the procedure by picking up additional fields such as salutation and selecting from multiple templates. That's what I do and it really does save a shedload of time.