[geeks] What happened to everybody?

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Wed, Jul 24, 2002 at 01:53:53PM -0600, Dave Kimmel wrote:

> That has been working for the last year and a half or so.  And it produces
> nice big stacks of letters (envelopes too!) every month.

Interesting approach.  But I don't feel like going back and revisiting
that, since it wasn't for work or anything like that.  One question,
why was the Word mail merge inadequate for you?  

In my case, I wanted the merge to run and leave me with 100 some word
files that had no ole (or whatever) tie back to the database that
created them so that the word files could be moved to and used on
computers without the database installed.  The point of this was to
select from among several report templates, fill in all the info
possible, then allow the word file to be taken to the interview for
filling out the remainder of the report.  The file would then be moved
to another directory where the typed in notes from the interview are
edited into real sentences and paragraphs, then move to another
directory to be checked and corrected for completeness, then printed,
mailed, and the word file being moved to the finished directory where
it would  eventually be move to offline storage.  This being for a 1
full time and 2+ part time operation that runs from late Feburary till
in theory early June, plus mailings throughout the year, appointment
scheduling, etc.  Perhaps it all could have been done with
conventional mail merge, but no one could figure out how to generate
the word documents to the desired style.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd