Windows Contacts Mail Merge Address Labels - Multi Line Addresses JohnMike 12/10/2008 11:59:04 AM Dear All, I want to complete a mail merge in word to print out address labels. The addressing data has been entered via windows contacts on a vista pc. Following the prescribed method I have exported the contacts to a CSV file. Imported that to an Excel Sheet and completed the usual merge processes. The problem lies with addresses containing 2 or more lines with in the Windows Contacts. These get exported in the following format name,"address line1 address line2",state etc etc When imported into the Excel sheet we then get r1 name address line1 r2 address line2 Which obviously then fails to merge correctly. I have manually edited the CSV and the Excel files to compensate for this and get a successful merge. But this seems like hard work. Surely other users have multi line addresses and want to use this data in word. Please can some one advise. -- JohnMike

Re: Windows Contacts Mail Merge Address Labels - Multi Line Addresses "Graham Mayor" <gmayor[ at ]REMOVETHISmvps.org> 12/10/2008 12:18:57 PM Windows Contacts? Word uses Outlook Contacts as its address book and merging from Outlook contacts is fairly straightforward http://www.gmayor.com/mailmerge_from_outlook.htm Word can use a variety of data sources - including csv files - directly. It is not necessary to export them to Excel. In any case you would have fewer potential problems if you used a Word table rather than an Excel table - see http://www.gmayor.com/convert_labels_into_mail_merge.htm If the result of your exported data source is that you have some fields that contain two pieces of information then what you see is how it will merge. Have you tried merging the data file without converting it? See http://www.gmayor.com/mail_merge_labels_with_word_xp.htm or http://www.gmayor.com/merge_labels_with_word_2007.htm -- <>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<> Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org <>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<> JohnMike wrote: [Quoted Text] > Dear All, > > I want to complete a mail merge in word to print out address labels. > The addressing data has been entered via windows contacts on a vista > pc. > > Following the prescribed method I have exported the contacts to a CSV > file. Imported that to an Excel Sheet and completed the usual merge > processes. > > The problem lies with addresses containing 2 or more lines with in the > Windows Contacts. > > These get exported in the following format name,"address line1 address > line2",state etc etc > > When imported into the Excel sheet we then get > > r1 name address line1 > r2 address line2 > > Which obviously then fails to merge correctly. > > I have manually edited the CSV and the Excel files to compensate for > this and get a successful merge. But this seems like hard work. > Surely other users have multi line addresses and want to use this > data in word. > > Please can some one advise.

Re: Windows Contacts Mail Merge Address Labels - Multi Line Addres JohnMike 12/10/2008 1:33:00 PM Hi Graham, Many thanks for this information and your help. I may of course be being stupid (which is quite likely). However on my Vista Machine I do not have anything called Outlook. I have windows mail and windows contacts and other utilities like calander etc. This has been being used in place of outlook. I assumed that these were standard vista utilities taking the place of outlook. I will see if I can track down the office cd's with a view to installing outlook, but I do not think that any were supplied with the machine. From your notes it appears that merging from the outlook contacts is the best solution. I will let you know how I get on. -- JohnMike "Graham Mayor" wrote: [Quoted Text] > Windows Contacts? > Word uses Outlook Contacts as its address book and merging from Outlook > contacts is fairly straightforward > http://www.gmayor.com/mailmerge_from_outlook.htm > Word can use a variety of data sources - including csv files - directly. It > is not necessary to export them to Excel. In any case you would have fewer > potential problems if you used a Word table rather than an Excel table - see > http://www.gmayor.com/convert_labels_into_mail_merge.htm > If the result of your exported data source is that you have some fields that > contain two pieces of information then what you see is how it will merge. > Have you tried merging the data file without converting it? > See http://www.gmayor.com/mail_merge_labels_with_word_xp.htm or > http://www.gmayor.com/merge_labels_with_word_2007.htm > > -- > <>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<> > Graham Mayor - Word MVP > > My web site www.gmayor.com > Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org > <>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<> > > > JohnMike wrote: > > Dear All, > > > > I want to complete a mail merge in word to print out address labels. > > The addressing data has been entered via windows contacts on a vista > > pc. > > > > Following the prescribed method I have exported the contacts to a CSV > > file. Imported that to an Excel Sheet and completed the usual merge > > processes. > > > > The problem lies with addresses containing 2 or more lines with in the > > Windows Contacts. > > > > These get exported in the following format name,"address line1 address > > line2",state etc etc > > > > When imported into the Excel sheet we then get > > > > r1 name address line1 > > r2 address line2 > > > > Which obviously then fails to merge correctly. > > > > I have manually edited the CSV and the Excel files to compensate for > > this and get a successful merge. But this seems like hard work. > > Surely other users have multi line addresses and want to use this > > data in word. > > > > Please can some one advise. > > >

Re: Windows Contacts Mail Merge Address Labels - Multi Line Addres "Graham Mayor" <gmayor[ at ]REMOVETHISmvps.org> 12/10/2008 3:33:54 PM I don't use Vista so I don't know anything about the Vista contacts manager. From the information I can find on the web, it would seem that exporting to CSV is the only practical solution for using the data - much as was the case with the old Windows Address Book. If you have Outlook (part of Office) then that would be a way forward. Otherwise mail merge is going to be a clumsy process as you have found. -- <>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<> Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org <>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<> JohnMike wrote: [Quoted Text] > Hi Graham, > > Many thanks for this information and your help. I may of course be > being stupid (which is quite likely). However on my Vista Machine I > do not have anything called Outlook. I have windows mail and windows > contacts and other utilities like calander etc. This has been being > used in place of outlook. > > I assumed that these were standard vista utilities taking the place of > outlook. > > I will see if I can track down the office cd's with a view to > installing outlook, but I do not think that any were supplied with > the machine. From your notes it appears that merging from the outlook > contacts is the best solution. > > I will let you know how I get on. > > > >> Windows Contacts? >> Word uses Outlook Contacts as its address book and merging from >> Outlook contacts is fairly straightforward >> http://www.gmayor.com/mailmerge_from_outlook.htm >> Word can use a variety of data sources - including csv files - >> directly. It is not necessary to export them to Excel. In any case >> you would have fewer potential problems if you used a Word table >> rather than an Excel table - see >> http://www.gmayor.com/convert_labels_into_mail_merge.htm >> If the result of your exported data source is that you have some >> fields that contain two pieces of information then what you see is >> how it will merge. Have you tried merging the data file without >> converting it? >> See http://www.gmayor.com/mail_merge_labels_with_word_xp.htm or >> http://www.gmayor.com/merge_labels_with_word_2007.htm >> >> -- >> <>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<> >> Graham Mayor - Word MVP >> >> My web site www.gmayor.com >> Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org >> <>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<> >> >> >> JohnMike wrote: >>> Dear All, >>> >>> I want to complete a mail merge in word to print out address labels. >>> The addressing data has been entered via windows contacts on a vista >>> pc. >>> >>> Following the prescribed method I have exported the contacts to a >>> CSV file. Imported that to an Excel Sheet and completed the usual >>> merge processes. >>> >>> The problem lies with addresses containing 2 or more lines with in >>> the Windows Contacts. >>> >>> These get exported in the following format name,"address line1 >>> address line2",state etc etc >>> >>> When imported into the Excel sheet we then get >>> >>> r1 name address line1 >>> r2 address line2 >>> >>> Which obviously then fails to merge correctly. >>> >>> I have manually edited the CSV and the Excel files to compensate for >>> this and get a successful merge. But this seems like hard work. >>> Surely other users have multi line addresses and want to use this >>> data in word. >>> >>> Please can some one advise.

Re: Windows Contacts Mail Merge Address Labels - Multi Line Addresses "Peter Jamieson" <pjj[ at ]KillmapSpjjnet.demon.co.uk> 12/10/2008 5:20:00 PM I think in this case the problem arises because of what happens when you open the exported text file in Excel. Are you seeing an import dialog where you have to specify the delimiter characters etc.? If so, I do not think anything you specify in there will let you import the file correctly, because it does not appear to know how to import standard delimited text files. However, a. if you open the file in from Windows Explorer using Excel, Excel /does/ get it right - at least it does here when I save the file as a .txt file. (You may have to select the program you want to use, and you probably should not set up Excel as the default for .txt files). b. you should be able to use the file exported from Windows Contacts directly as a data source for a merge, without having to go via Excel. Both of those routes will almost certainly fail if any of your data has double quote characters in it, because Windows Contacts (like Outlook Express before it, AFAIK), does not take account of the standard rules for formatting delimited text files. There is another way to approach this, but it requires some code which I'll have to think about. -- Peter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk "JohnMike" <JohnMike[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:DFB7031A-C184-4BFC-B142-9B018A30EF3B[ at ]microsoft.com... [Quoted Text] > Dear All, > > I want to complete a mail merge in word to print out address labels. The > addressing data has been entered via windows contacts on a vista pc. > > Following the prescribed method I have exported the contacts to a CSV > file. > Imported that to an Excel Sheet and completed the usual merge processes. > > The problem lies with addresses containing 2 or more lines with in the > Windows Contacts. > > These get exported in the following format name,"address line1 address > line2",state etc etc > > When imported into the Excel sheet we then get > > r1 name address line1 > r2 address line2 > > Which obviously then fails to merge correctly. > > I have manually edited the CSV and the Excel files to compensate for this > and get a successful merge. But this seems like hard work. Surely other > users > have multi line addresses and want to use this data in word. > > Please can some one advise. > > -- > JohnMike