Mail Merges with Office 2007 or Office 2010

Abstract

Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 (tm) significantly alters the user experience by introducing a completely new user interface.  This means that the step-by-step instructions for earlier versions of MS Office are no longer valid.  This article describes how to perform a mailmerge with Capable 21C using Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 (tm).

Underlying challenge

There are four core steps that need to be completed for one of the Capable 21C Mail merge documents to work correctly with Office 2007 or Office 2010.  These are:

  1. Alter the configuration of MS Office so that it permits database connections.
  2. Edit the document(s) so that they work correctly with Office 2007 (or 2010).  Save the documents in the new Office 2007 format.  This will result in a minor change to the filenames of the document(s).
  3. Update Capable 21C so that it knows the new filename(s).
  4. Update Capable 21C so that it will no longer attempt to re-connect documents each time it open Microsoft Word.

Refer to the resolution section for step-by-step instructions.

Resolution

Altering the configuration of MS Word to permit database connections

If you have the latest copy of Capable 21C, this step should not be required.  However, if you have an older version of Capable 21C that will not do this step automatically for you, refer to the following Microsoft documentation on how to complete this step manually:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825765

Editing the document so that it is correctly linked and saving it in Office 2007/2010 format

In older versions of Microsoft Word, Capable 21C was able to complete the following steps automatically, and would do so every time a document was opened.  In the latest version of Microsoft Word, the steps should be done manually once, and then the document can be saved in a way that will allow Capable 21C to open it and use it without having to perform these steps every time:

  1. Open the document in Microsoft Word.
  2. Go to the Mailings Ribbon Bar.
  3. Click on the Select Recipients button.
  4. Choose the option to Use and Existing List.
  5. Navigate to the C:\Capable folder, and choose the Capable.MDB database.  Refer to the detailed instructions below for linking where SQL Server is in use.
  6. Select the Mail Merge Data query.
  7. Click the Preview Results button to see the patient/client name.
  8. Go to the File page.
  9. Click the Save As.
  10. Change the Save As Type to be Microsoft Word Document.  Note that the filename will automatically change to have an X on the end of it (eg BringUp.doc becomes BringUp.docX)
  11. Click Save and then Close Microsoft Word.

Update Capable 21C so that it is aware of the new filename

It may be necessary to complete this step in two places depending on how Capable 21C has been configured to use the document.

If the document is one of the generic documents supplied with Capable 21C (eg BringUps, Recalls, Birthdays, Referees, etc):

  1. Start Capable 21C.
  2. Go to Setup|Settings.
  3. Go to the Other tab.
  4. Scroll down through the list of system components, and click on WordDocs.
  5. Click on the relevant document entry (eg Bring Ups Letter)
  6. Change the value to add the 'X' to the end of the Filename.

If the document has been configured as one of Capable's custom documents:

  1. Start Capable 21C.
  2. Go to the Setup menu, and choose Setup Document Types.
  3. Double click on the icon for the relevant document.
  4. Change the filename to add the 'X' to the end of the Filename.
  5. Apply and Close.

Update Capable 21C so that it will no longer attempt to reconnect documents every time it opens them

In older versions of Microsoft Word, Capable 21C could automatically relink documents to the database every time they were opened.  This functionality has proved to be less reliable with the latest versions of Microsoft Word.  As long as the documents have been linked and saved correctly using the instructions in this knowledgebase article, Capable 21C's automatic relinking functionality can be safely disabled:

  1. Start Capable 21C.
  2. Go to Setup|Settings.
  3. Go to the Other tab.
  4. Scroll down through the list of system components and click on WordDocs.
  5. Click on the setting called 'Skip Relink Document'.
  6. Change the value to be True
  7. Click Close (no need to click Apply).

Detailed Information

If the office is using SQL Server as its database engine, the following additional steps will be required to link the documents to the database:

  1. When prompted for the existing list, click the 'New Source' button.
  2. Choose Microsoft SQL Server.
  3. When prompted for the Server Name, key in the full name (and instance) of the SQL Server.  If this is not known, it can be found on the Capable 21C Help|About window.
  4. When prompted for the Database, choose Capable21CData.
  5. Choose the Mail Merge Data query.
  6. You will be prompted for a name for the new data source, but the defaults can be accepted without change.
  7. Click Finish, and continue with the previous instructions.
This knowledge resource is designed for use on a Windows (tm) XP system operating at a screen resolution of 1024x768 or better. Windows Media Player must be installed for this training resource to operate correctly.

Copyright 2008 Capable Software Pty Ltd

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