Re: RTF Mail Merge Fields

The problem with trying to include RTF text via merge fields is that merge fields only insert character data, with no formatting information from the data source. If you copied your Access data to a Word document, used that as the data source, and used REF fields instead of MERGEFIELD fields to insert data, some of the formatting gets through, but it's all rather arbitrary.

The only way I know to get the RTF text from Access to Word that has any hope of working is to export the contents of each Access RTF field to a ..rtf file on disk, then insert t using an INCLUDETEXT field. This is of course non-trivial, but I quote an earlier message that has some ideas...

----------------------
Using Mailmerge without code, you have to export the content of each
field containing rtf text to a disk file, then use INCLUDETEXT to insert it.

Typically you would need to export the text to a filename that is
somehow related to a unique identifier (e.g. the primary key field(s))
in the table you are merging. So suppose you have a autonumber primary
key called k containing 1,2,3,... and your column is called mycolumn,
you might create a file called c:\myrtfs\mycolumn1.rtf for the rtf for
mycolumn in record 1

Then you would use a nested INCLUDETEXT field in your mail merge main
document, e.g.

{ INCLUDETEXT "c:\\myrtfs\\mycolumn{ MERGEFIELD k }" }

Alternatively, you might be able to use Word MailMerge events: for each
Access record, the event handler (probably MailMergeBeforeRecordMerge)
would need to use e.g. ADO to export the RTF, then insert it into the
document. I do not know how feasible that is.

I can't say I recommend this, but for a small number of records you
could consider the following:
a. create an Access User-defined (VBA) function that exports the RTF
for a specified field into a file
b. create an Access query that returns the other data you want and
calls that function. Ideally the function would return the pathname of
the file it created, with backslashes doubled up.
c. In Word, connect to that query using the DDE connection method
(there is another possibility)

Here's a how-to I wrote in 2001, slightly modified:

Suppose the function
is called rtfx
b. create a query that has columns k, r and rtfx
c. use the query as the datasource for your merge.

For example, the following Access function should do the necessary

Function rtfx(n As Integer, s As String) As String
dim r as String
Dim t As String * 1

' Generate the file name you want
rtfx = "c:\myrtfs\rtf" & Trim(Str(n)) & ".rtf"
' and return a doubled-backslash version ias the function result
rtfx = "c:\\myrtfs\\rtf" & Trim(Str(n)) & ".rtf"

Open r For Binary As 1 Len = 1
For i = 1 To Len(s)
t = Mid(s, i, 1)
Put #1, i, t
Next
Close 1

End Function

Then your query might have columns

k, r, and rtfx(k,r)

e.g.

Run the query in Access and Access will modify the text in column 3 to
something like
Expr1: rtfx([k],[r])

You can then change Expr1 to a more helpful name such as "filepath"

Then create your Word mailmerge main document and set up the query as the
data source - Word should offer k,r and filepath as the possible
mergefields.

Your INCLUDETEXT field would then need to look like

{ INCLUDETEXT "{ MERGEFIELD filepath }" }

Worth a try?
----------------------

Of course, that assumes that you are using the MailMerge mechanism, but faced with this problem for real, I would probably avoid MailMerge and use Access VBA code to generate each Word document in turn (assuming you're not going for a catalog/directory), saving each RTF field to disk as needed and inserting it directly using the relevant Word Insert file method. However, I cannot provide you with code for that.

Yes, it probably is something that lots of people want to do, but there are non-trivial problems to solve when attempting this, no matter how you encode your formatted text (e.g., you encode it using XML, but using which vocabulary/ies?). And I don't suppose anyone on the development side has wanted to solve it for RTF-encoded text ever since RTF became a "legacy format", which you could argue is over a decade ago.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

Vic wrote:
Doug,

Thanks for the reply but I'm having a problem understanding how to implement these switches. The rtf fields are inserted in an Access database using a VB program and contain data such as:

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 MS Sans Serif;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset2 Symbol;}}
\viewkind4\uc1\pard\lang1033\f0\fs17 OK - We need to change these text boxes so that we can \b set strings of words to BOLD\b0 , change fonts, do underlines and we also need to do bullets:
\par
\par \pard{\pntext\f1\'B7\tab}{\*\pn\pnlvlblt\pnf1\pnindent0{\pntxtb\'B7}}Oranges

\par {\pntext\f1\'B7\tab}Apples
\par {\pntext\f1\'B7\tab}Pears
\par \pard
\par This all seems to work but when it gets merged into word, all of the formatting characters show as text!
\par
\par
\par }

It appears to me from the use of these switches I can use /*charformat to bold, underline and italics. So where are these switches implemented? I tried as a test to press ctl F9 and inserted Graham's bold example { REF chapter2_title \* Charformat } would display "Whales of the Pacific" but it only displayed this as plain text without formatting.

I need to be able to have this done programmatically so I would assume I'd need some sort of word macro. The VB program invokes the mail merge and turns the document into a PDF which then gets merged with other PDF documents to produce a final document as a PDF. So I suppose I'd have to invoke the word macro to massage the word document after the mail merge is completed. Would that be correct?

I don't see that bullets, indenting and font changes are supported with switches. Are there any examples of using templates with docvariable fields. There are about 20 merge fields that are inserted in this document.

Would you provide a bit of guidance on where to go from here? Are there some examples somewhere for doing this. It would seem to me to be a quite common occurance but I'm finding limited information on using switches and merge fields that contain rtf data.

Vic






"Doug Robbins - Word MVP on news.microsoft.com" <dkr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:uZxJBGSqJHA.3896@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
For any more than the formatting that can be applied by use of Word field formatting switches, I think that you would have to use a "roll-your-own" equivalent to mailmerge where in place of a mail merge main document containing mergefields, you would use a template containing docvariable fields and then you would run a macro that would create a new document from that template for each record in data source, setting the values of variables in the document to the value of corresponding field for that record in the data source and making use of the formatting information in the data source to apply the required formatting.

For information on Word field formatting switches, see "Formatting Word fields with switches" on fellow MVP Graham Mayor's website at:

http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm


--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

"Vic" <vic@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:4D1BC821-E02F-47B0-8D16-52F1FEF6B647@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello,

I am trying to setup a mail merge and use rtf text fields from a database. These rtf fields contain the formatting instructions for bolding, bullets, font settings etc. However, the problem I am having is word does not recognize these formatting characters and prints everything as plain text. My main document is an rtf file.

How can I get word to interpretate these instructions? I am using Word 2002.


Thank you,

Vic





.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: RTF Mail Merge Fields
    ... The thing is that setting selBullet to true is something you would set in the Richtext editor control's properties - selBullet isn't something in the RTF spec. ... whether in fact by using Alt-7 you are inserting a bullet character ... These will all merge fine from the data source. ... In other words, using MERGEFIELD fields loses the most formatting, using REF fields with a Word format data source loses less formatting, using INCLUDETEXTed RTF files generated on the fly /may/ lose less than that, which may clash in various ways). ...
    (microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields)
  • Re: RTF Mail Merge Fields
    ... is there a way to ensure that Word honours the formatting that you applied? ... As far as is concerned, if you are using the Richtext control in VB6 to generate the RTF in the data source, then ... do underlines and we also need to do bullets: ...
    (microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields)
  • Re: RTF Mail Merge Fields
    ... These will all merge fine from the data source. ... What I'm doing now to get around this is when a bulleted list is setup on the merge source I am inserting ALT 7 instead setting selBullet to true per the rtf spec. ... In other words, using MERGEFIELD fields loses the most formatting, using REF fields with a Word format data source loses less formatting, using INCLUDETEXTed RTF files generated on the fly /may/ lose less than that, which may clash in various ways). ... do underlines and we also need to do bullets: ...
    (microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields)
  • Re: RTF Mail Merge Fields
    ... Another thing the bullets cause is to change the paragraph numbering that follows the bulleted list i.e. ... This all seems to work but when it gets merged into word, all of the formatting is lost. ... If you copied your Access data to a Word document, used that as the data source, and used REF fields instead of MERGEFIELD fields to insert data, some of the formatting gets through, but it's all rather arbitrary. ... The only way I know to get the RTF text from Access to Word that has any hope of working is to export the contents of each Access RTF field to a .rtf file on disk, then insert t using an INCLUDETEXT field. ...
    (microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields)
  • Re: RTF Mail Merge Fields
    ... Ypur best bet here is probably to avoid using automatic numbering in the main document - although it may be possible to prevent "interference" between the numbering in the RTF and the numbering in the main document by specifying a named list template or some such in the main document, that stuff is hard to tame. ... This all seems to work but when it gets merged into word, all of the formatting is lost. ... It appears to me from the use of these switches I can use /*charformat to bold, ...
    (microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields)
Loading