Works Suite: How Installing Office and Works Suite Affects Word and Mail Merge (256253)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Works Suite 2003
  • Microsoft Works Suite 2001
  • Microsoft Works Suite 2000
  • Microsoft Word 2000
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Premium
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Professional
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Standard
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Developer
This article was previously published under Q256253

SUMMARY

Microsoft Works Suite 2003 uses Word 2002 (Word 10) as its word processor. Microsoft Works Suite 2001 and Microsoft Works Suite 2000 both use Microsoft Word 2000 as the word processor program.

When you install Works Suite after Microsoft Office has been installed, you may notice small changes in the interface, and there may be options that appear available that do not work as expected, this is particularly true with the Mail Merge commands.

This article describes the changes to the Mail Merge interface that you may experience for various installation combinations.

MORE INFORMATION

Works Suite Without Office

Word is available on the Programs menu in the Task Launcher, or by selecting a task in Works Task Launcher. It also available if you click Start, and then click Programs.

To use the Works templates and easy Works helpers, start your mail merge in the Works Task Launcher by selecting Word from the Programs tab and Mail Merge from the list of available Word projects.

If you select Mail Merge in Word, you notice the following:

  • Change Select Names with the Works Address Book is not available if you did not start your Mail Merge in Works Task Launcher.
When you point to Mail Merge on the Tools menu, a Mail Merge submenu appears. The following menu commands are available as described:
  • Document Type is always available. When you click Document Type, you are given the opportunity to select a document type (Form Letter for example), or to return to the original document. You must select a document type to activate Mail Merge. After selecting the document type, you select the type of data that you want to merge.
  • Data Source is available after Mail Merge has been activated and you have selected and initial data source. The purpose of this selection is to allow more than one data source to be merged with the main document.
  • Select Names is available if the Works Address Book has been selected as one of the data sources. The Address Book has no way to mark records for sorting, but this option permits you to sort by name the data records that you want to view or print.
  • Filter and Sort is available after a document type has been selected. This menu selection permits you to filter (select) which records to view or print and sort the order in which they are viewed or printed.
  • The Options selection is always available. Clicking Options starts the Mail Merge Helper, which can help you through a data merge process.
When you have activated Mail Merge, the Mail Merge toolbar appears. This toolbar has all the necessary commands to format the merged document. The following commands are available on the Mail Merge toolbar:
  • Click Insert Merge Field to select and insert the merge field you want. The merge field is inserted where the insertion marker is positioned.
  • Click Insert Word Field to select and insert customizable fields. A dialog box appears for most Word fields with "What's this" help available for each text box. Word fields are inserted where the insertion marker is positioned.
  • Click View Merged Data to view the merged document with the data records instead of the field names. When you click this tool a second time, the field names reappear.
  • Click First Record to jump to the first record that can be viewed or printed.
  • Click Previous Record to decrement to the previous record. If you are at the first record, this command does nothing.
  • The Go to Record box indicates which record is available to view if you click View Merged Data. This is also the record that prints with the document when you print the current page.
  • Click Next Record to increment to the next record. If you are at the last record, this command does nothing.
  • Click Last Record to jump to the last record that can be viewed or printed.
  • Click Mail Merge Helper to start the Microsoft Office Mail Merge Helper.
  • Click Check for Errors to open the Checking and Reporting Errors dialog box and "test" the merged document.
  • Click Merge to New document to create a new document. The new document contains a collection of separate documents, each containing the original document with one merged record. You can scroll through each sheet and customize each document as you want.
  • Click Merge to Printer to print the merged documents.
  • Click Merge to open the Merge dialog box. This tool has some features not readily available in the Mail Merge helper, such as the Don't print blank lines option.
  • Click Find Record to go to a specific record, if you do not know the record number.
  • Click Edit Data Source to open the data source and make changes.

    CAUTION: Clicking Edit Data Source breaks the link between data sources so that they no longer update each other automatically. It is generally better to open the data source directly to make changes.
NOTE: After the merged document is formatted and viewed, you can remove the Mail Merge toolbar by clicking Toolbars on the View menu, and then clicking Mail Merge to clear it.

Works Suite After Installing Office

The difference you notice in Works Suite after you install Office has to do with Microsoft Query. Microsoft Query is primarily an Office program that is used to exchange data files between Office programs.

After installing Office, when you click Filter and Sort on the Mail Merge menu (on the Tools menu), you may see the following message

Word detected Microsoft Query on your system. Would you like to edit name using Microsoft Query?

where name is the name of the data source.

Always click No in this message if you are using the Works Address Book or a Works database as the data source.

CAUTION: If you click Yes in this message the Works Query Options dialog box is no longer available to you, and you have to reopen the document to use the Works Query Options.

Office Without Works Suite

Without Works Suite installed, the Mail Merge selection on the Tools menu does not open a submenu. When you click Mail Merge, the Mail Merge Helper is opened.

Office After Works Suite Is Installed

After Works Suite is installed, the Mail Merge selection on the Tools menu opens a submenu that is described in the first paragraph of this article.

You may discover additional Word Help topics related to the interaction of Word 2000 with Works Suite databases and the Works Address Book.

REFERENCES

For additional information about using mail merge, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256256 Works Suite: How to Mail Merge a Word 2000 Document with a Works Database

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:1/3/2006
Keywords:kbAddIn kbinfo KB256253
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