Issue 25699 - Better mail merge
Summary: Better mail merge
Status: CLOSED IRREPRODUCIBLE
Alias: None
Product: Writer
Classification: Application
Component: ui (show other issues)
Version: OOo 1.1
Hardware: All All
: P3 Trivial with 1 vote (vote)
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: bettina.haberer
QA Contact: issues@sw
URL:
Keywords: oooqa
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2004-02-19 17:47 UTC by gimpy
Modified: 2013-08-07 14:41 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: ENHANCEMENT
Latest Confirmation in: ---
Developer Difficulty: ---

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Description gimpy 2004-02-19 17:47:38 UTC 
It was suggested to me at LWE 2004 that the mail merge in OOo is pretty clunky.
 I think it's not rally that apparent how to set up a mail merge.  Perhaps it
would be better if there was a function that could create a dBASE file (as used
for the Bibliography) where a user can enter address information into a form
that, when saved, would automatically link as a data source.  It would be
possible to create multiple mail merge lists.  The mail merge list could be used
to address lettersa and envelopes (and labels).
Comment 1 mci 2004-02-20 08:27:38 UTC 
reassigned to bh
Comment 2 pbatchie 2005-10-11 00:46:41 UTC 
I can't find one good thing to say about MM. I'm trying to set up OOo for my 
daughter, who is not as tech-oriented as I, and there is no way this is going 
to fly at this rate. With MSO I had MM up and running, completely intuitively, 
in less than twelve minutes including creating a sample database. I've been at 
this in OOo for multiple hours and have gone backwards.

Sorry, but that's the raw truth. This thing has to become far more intuitive 
if you want people to use it, if you hope to wean the average user away from 
MSO.
Comment 3 darford 2009-07-12 17:52:29 UTC 
I'm sorry, but I have to agree that Mail Merge in 3.1.0 has some serious usability 
issues.  I had great difficulty getting it to display the address and salutation 
blocks correctly, and the help wasn't particularly helpful.  If I found a way to 
create the letter, this may not be a bug per se, but I'd have finished in half the 
time if I had used a typewriter...  There's something wrong with this picture.
Comment 4 Rainer Bielefeld 2009-07-15 06:53:08 UTC 
I suggest to close this Issue. Current Mail Merge has been improved since 1.1,
and a simple "make a better mail merge" is useless without concrete suggestions.
Additionally I disagree with the suggestions from the original report. The
suggested way is some kind of "putting the cart before the horse". I very often
use mail merge to send email letters to various different recipient groups using
my standard address data base and filter tools, and that works perfectly without
any problems.
Comment 5 Rainer Bielefeld 2009-07-25 17:21:23 UTC 
No objections, so RESOLVED WFM
Comment 6 Rainer Bielefeld 2009-07-31 16:39:24 UTC 
No objections, so CLOSED