Re: [libreoffice-users] Multi-source Mail Merge

On 05/11/2015 05:43 AM, T. R. Valentine wrote:
> On 9 May 2015 at 13:40, A <publicface@bak.rr.com> wrote:
> > I have multiple spreadsheet files that each represent one unique item.  As
> > an analogy, think of the spreadsheet as a basket that contains a variety of
> > eggs (both calculated and hand-entered data). I have multiple baskets each
> > with multiple eggs.  Each basket (spreadsheet) is associated with one
> > person.  Each person can have multiple baskets (although that's probably not
> > relevant).
> >
> > I also have a letter, with which I want to do a mail merge - against each
> > spreadsheet.  i.e. each letter needs to draw multiple pieces of data (eggs)
> > from each spreadsheet, one letter per spreadsheet.
> >
> > Normally to do a mail merge you have one data source.  The problem of course
> > is that I don't have one data source, I have an unknown number - each
> > spreadsheet is a data source.  So I'm at a loss as to how to mail merge
> > against multiple data sources in an automated fashion.
> Would it be possible to create a 'master' spreadsheet, linked to the
> various single spreadsheets and then do the mail merge from the
> 'master'?

That's a really good idea in concept, however in practice I don't know 
how it would work.  I presume you're saying that the master spreadsheet 
would contain filenames of all the other spreadsheets? That's fine 
except I don't see how that helps, as each file needs to be opened by 
the mail merge function one at a time and there doesn't seem to be a way 
to automate that.

Unless you're saying that the master would contain just the needed cells 
from the other spreadsheets?  That seems interesting... it would solve 
the mail merge problem as then I'd only have one data source, but I'd 
have to hand enter each file name, modifying each cell one at a time.  
That doesn't sound too appealing.



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