Switch Text Paragraphs in OpenOfficeOrg Writer mailmerge
- by Glen S. Dalton
I am using mailmerge to write the same letter with minor differenes to many peolpe. I experienced that switching text paragraphs depending on database values was not easy for me. I ended up putting huge text paragraphs into the database becaus switching did not really work for me.
Actually I dont' understand how writer does it and maybe the boolean evaluation is buggy?
There is some possibility making paragraphs invisible depending on database fields, but it was frustrating. After marking a paragraph as invisible (depending on a condition) it went invisible in the main document and did not come back, I lost the content.
An example in pseudocode of what I want in my mailmerge document:
{if [[balance]] 10} We owe you money.
Please can you send your bank details.
{end if}
{if [[balance]] < -10} Please transfer
the remaining amount to our banc
account 123... {end if}
Maybe this could be done with makros? But how to combine makros with mailmerge?
Can you tell me what are the pitfalls and how to master them?
I once did this with ms word, it was a lot easier. The normal mailmerge (including database fields in the letters) works fine for me in OpenOffice writer.
