John,
You've written two posts by hitting Reply to: on another email that's about
another subject (About the Delete Key on OS X). While that's an easy way to
make sure you get the list address without typing it in, it means your new
posts, on totally different topics, are rolled up into this thread about the
Delete Key.
That creates a few problems: 1) Those dealing with the thread on Delete Keys
are frustrated because that discussion is now taken over by two other topics
and it's harder to follow the discussion, and 2) People that are potentially
interested in your topics have a good chance of never seeing them because
they're folded up in a topic about Delete Keys and OS X. People that may have
answers to your questions may never see your posts because they'll be filed
under the other topic, so they may see that topic, decide it doesn't apply to
them, and delete the entire thread, including your posts.
You can avoid this by not starting new threads by using the Reply to:
function and just changing the title -- email programs look at data other than
the subject to determine topic threads.
Hal
On Jul 3, 2011, at 11:10 AM, John B wrote:
Eagerly awaited - for a LO working mail merge from the newly released 3.4.1
Before I did this test, I completely cleaned 3.3.3 using revo-uninstaller to
ensure a completely new install.
The 1st thing I did was to view existing mail merge data files from 3.3.3 -
they were still all screwed up as before. I therefore deleted them, so at to
not cause further confusion and start again from new. However, I could not
find a way of deleting the old files from the internal list (there is no
remove button), once I looked at them.
I started from fresh, I created a standard 2 name data base for Mr Smith Mr
Blogs.
I did this with ease. Now when the MM came to the part that places the data
on the letter (6. Edit Document), a few strange things happened, the address
line 2, the County and Company names were not present, the post code came
before the town name and the title Mr is on a separate line to his name.
This is where you have a learn a new game called shuffle and add the field
names. So you go back to 3. Insert Address Block, go into edit mode and
play with the arrows and create a standard address pattern (which you would
have thought would be the default). I considered that this could this be
deliberate (because they are so bad) - so as to force you to look and make
your own? However, you will only have to do this once, as LO remembers this
layout for the next time.
Then Create Salutation (tick the boxes), Adjust layout (I did not use this),
then Edit document
In Edit Document the Field Names are deposited on your letter for the 1st
time, the next thing you notice is the weird Spacing between the address
lines, you cannot adjust this in the document directly (its frozen), so you
have to go to the Edit Document's:- Edit Document (right click) Edit
Paragraph style indents spacing Below Paragraph set to 0.00cm - This
puts it back to the letter default.
Then Personalise Document (this prints all your letters) - this is where you
now can see (WYSIWYG) for the 1st time, the full document that will be
printed and you realise that there are no spaces or comma's between the
fields hence the 1st line looks like MrJohnSmith.
To resolve this, you have to go back to Edit Document to put in spaces (and
comma's). I could find no way of doing this at making / inserting address
block stage, so you will always need to do this on each new mail merge.
I saved and Exited
I then realised that there were no name(s) after the salutation Dear ..,
so I went back and tried unsuccessfully to insert it again, the moment you
go from Edit Document (where the Dear Mr Smith exists) to Personalise
Document, it disappears ( a Bug me thinks). As a work around, whilst in Edit
mode, I copied pasted the name, this (the name) stayed when I went on to
Personalise Document (annoying but it worked). So I would suggest don't use
Create Salutation, make your own, by copying pasting from the main Address
block.
Also, on testing, other previously known bugs:-
As long as you do not click the Insert address block on the 2nd time around
(leave it greyed out), then it does not insert a 2nd address block AND the
links stay in place.
Having exited again, I then edited the data base file (*.csv) by adding a new
name (a 3rd name in my case), in the spread sheet format *.csv (it takes a
while to find this file and remember to read it in tab format). Re- started
the mail merge - and it Worked!! - 3 names. So names addresses can now be
entered with ease and without having to open mail merge and mass data can
now be pasted into the *csv file - if you so desire!
Summary:-
Other than a few minor niggles and only the one (easy to get around) bug,
that I could find,
