Forum Discussion
Merge Fields or attach PDF
Hello:
I am doing some research on different forms of mass document production, and which would be the least time consuming.
The base document is a standard template with a few existing merge fields in Word that will ultimately be converted to a PDF. There is additional data on a PDF document that needs to be added. Would it be easier to add 3-4 additional merge fields to the standard template, merge that data each time, or just attach the PDF to the document each time when it is finalized?
Are there any advantages or pitfalls with either method?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
3 Replies
Use the Merge with Attachments facility on my Merge Tools Add-in that is contained in the MERGE TOOLS ADD-IN.zip file that you can download from:
Extract the files from the archive and read the:
“READ ME – Setting up and using the Merge Tools Add-in.pdf
to see how to install and use the various tools.
Using those tools, it is possible to perform the following types of merge that cannot be done with Mail Merge “out-of-the-box”:
- Merge to e-mail messages either with or without attachments, with the documents created by the merge being sent as either Word or PDF attachments or as the body of the e-mail message . The email messages can, if necessary, also be sent to CC and BCC addresses.
- Merge to individual documents in either Word or PDF format with the filenames being supplied by the data in one of the fields in the data source
- Many to One type merges, which can be used for creating documents such as invoices where there are multiple records in the data source that have common data in one of the fields
- Merging to a document that will include a chart that is unique to each record in the data source
- Merging a document with Content Controls
- Merging a document that contains Legacy FormFields
- Duplex Merges
- Merging to a printer that will collate and staple the output created from each record in the data source.
The requirements for using the system are:
- The mail merge main document must be of the Letters type, though that does not mean that the output cannot be sent as an e-mail message where relevant.
- For the Many To One, Merge with Attachments and Merge to Individual Docs utilities, the data source may be either a table or query in an Access database, or in the form of an Excel worksheet. For the Chart Merge utility, see the Mail Merging with Charts document that is included in the Merge Tools Add-in Zip file for additional requirements for the data source for use with that utility
- For a data source in the form of an Excel worksheet, the field names must be in the first row of the worksheet and there must be a field name in all of the cells in that row that are within the range of columns that contain the data.
- For both types of data source, the field names must contain only alphanumeric characters (No @,#,$,%,&,(,), etc) and the field names must not start with a numeric character (0-9). The number of characters in the field names, including spaces, must not be more than 40.
Doug, thank you for the very informative and detailed response.
I guess my question was a simple one. If one has a choice between attaching a PDF, or instead merging data into several different merge fields, which one would be the quickest procedure? I am looking at a situation where thousands of documents would be created, so every keystroke counts.
- If you want to produce a single pdf for each record in the data source, the best thing would be to start with a mail merge main document that contained all of the content. If the result is not required to be emailed, use the Merge to Individual Documents facility of my Merge Tools Add-in. If it is to be emailed, use the Merge with Attachments facility, selecting Merge to Email as PDF Attachment destination, which will create an individual pdf for each record, saving it to your computer, as well as emailing it to the email address(es) contained in a field in the data source.
