MailMerge - custom fields not available in Word

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul E
  • Start date Start date
P

Paul E

--- OL 2002 SP-2 on XP Pro (up to date) ---

I have a Contacts folder that is customized with lots of custom fields (50
maybe) and a custom on screen form. Everything works fine and has for
several years.

I used to start in OL with Tools | MailMerge, select All Contacts and All
Contact Fields and then I would have no problem setting up new forms in Word
for mailing labels, form letters, etc.

Now, when I select these same entries I get to Word and find that I only
have the standard fields available (via Insert Merge Field).

I hand-entered the correct field name into a field (via "Edit Field" - not
by typing brace brackets or anything like that) and it does not find the
field.

So, I went back to OL and started again and this time said I wanted to save
the contact data file for future use. When I then look in the file, the
first "block" of information appears to be the headers and then the data
records follow that. The data records DO contain my custom fields but the
header seems to have blanks (e.g., ... "","",""...) holding the custom
field positions as best I can tell (there are so many it is hard to be sure
but I CAN confirm that my custom field names are NOT in the top block.

I have verified that my VIEW has the fields selected and in fact created a
View | Table and opened ALL contact fields (custom and otherwise) -- no
change in MailMerge though. In the Table View, the headers DO show my
custom field names as you would expect.

I used to do this no trouble at all.

I have dumped all the Windows\TEMP files....

Any help out there?

Thanks in advance,

Paul
 
Clarification: I just confirmed that the headers in the saved data file do
NOT contain blank entries and do only contain the default fields, not custom
ones.
 
Well, I have been able to learn also that all my custom data is held in the
group of fields known as "User-defined fields in this item" and none of them
appear as "User-defined fields in folder".

When I add a new field to the Form, it gets stored in the User-defined
fields in folder" and THOSE DO get mail merged out to Word.

So, is there a way I can get the user-defined fields in an item moved to
"user-defined fields in folder" ???

Paul
 
You can define those fields in the folder using the folder's Field Chooser. Click New, give it a name and make sure each field has the same data type as the corresponding fields in the folder's items.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
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