Help with Libre Office mail merge, starting from Calc

Savvy_Sue

Hi there, can anyone point me to a really easy Idiot's Guide to mail-merge in Libre Office please? I can do it standing on my head in MS Office, but I don't have that on my home computer.

I tried once before, using Help, and got nowhere fast, so gave up.

All my data is in a Calc file, and I need to produce both labels and letters with the data mail-merged in.

TIA.

John_Gray

Did you try a search for "mail merge calc"? That brings up a number of hits for Open Office, which should map across to LibreOffice without too many problems.

("Other searches are available...")

OneADay

Might help

http://davidmburke.com/2011/08/10/mail-merge-in-libreoffice/

Savvy_Sue

John_Gray wrote: »

Did you try a search for "mail merge calc"? That brings up a number of hits for Open Office, which should map across to LibreOffice without too many problems.

("Other searches are available...")

Thanks. As I said before, last time I tried I attempted to use the 'Help' function within LibreOffice, and got nowhere fast. What I don't have is a lot of time for searching and deciding whether or not what I've got will work. Also the phrase 'should map across ... without too many problems' makes my heart sink!

OneADay wrote: »

Might help

http://davidmburke.com/2011/08/10/mail-merge-in-libreoffice/

Thanks, I will give that one a whirl. A promising start with a recognition that there aren't too many tutorials for this, although finding the sentence 'You can also try making conditional sections but with such difficulty in doing that, you might as well just make your text document in Python' at an early stage makes me wonder ...

Stops for quick rant that if one more person tells me that LibreOffice and MSOffice are freely interchangeable and I'll hardly notice the difference, hardware may fly in their direction. Fortunately our work tech support people know my views and have stopped trying to persuade me. For simple tasks it may be true, but I don't just do simple stuff!!!

Savvy_Sue

I've got to step three of printing labels. It says "Choose the database and table from which to get the data." It gives no clue as to how to do this, the labels dialogue box offers one option of a bibliography.

Sigh.

Maybe I'll try the letters first.

OK, got the info I need from trying the letters, still stuck on how to change the field names into actual names ...

paddyrg

Hi Sue,

I merge a lot in Microsoft Office, have used OO in the past, and it's fairly similar TBH.

You need to do the 'Merge' to turn field names into actual names - give it a try

Savvy_Sue

paddyrg wrote: »

Hi Sue,

I merge a lot in Microsoft Office, have used OO in the past, and it's fairly similar TBH.

You need to do the 'Merge' to turn field names into actual names - give it a try

Sorry paddy but it just does not work in a similar way for labels.

If I use mail-merge, I do not get the option of producing labels, only a letter or an email.

Another update: if I print from the label file when I've just got the fieldnames showing in each label, I can generate 97 sheets of labels, each showing one name and address. Clearly this is not what I want.

Going to have a very brief try at the letters. Not holding my breath.

Savvy_Sue

The good news: I found some cheap window envelopes, so I can abandon the attempt to print labels ...

John_Gray

Ah - but what happens next time, when the window envelopes have run out?!

Savvy_Sue

John_Gray wrote: »

Ah - but what happens next time, when the window envelopes have run out?!

I hope by then I'll have found the installation disks for MS Office!!! I can install it legally and start doing these things standing on my head again!

Either that, or I'll do the work at work, and send home a PDF to print ...

John_Gray

Once you've installed MS Office and begin work with it, I look forward to the photos...!