[SLUG] Mailmerge, debate

[Martin Webb]

john at johnallsopp.co.uk wrote:
> I'm trying to do a mailmerge of a letter with data in a spreadsheet.
> Open Office 2.0 Writer is so difficult to use I haven't managed it.
> Well, I kinda have but not in the format I want, and now it just
> crashes.

The Mail Merge Wizard also works OK (you can put an -ish after that, if 
you want), but it's a very unsophisticated beast, and you have to do 
everything in a prescribed manner.  (Don't expect it to do anything but 
put in some kind of salutation and an address block.  That's all it 
does.  That's all it's designed to do.  I think half the problem with it 
is that one has higher expectations.)  For a start, I could only get the 
salutation to work satisfactorily if the Calc Spreadsheet was set up 
"right", and included a field called Gender, with entries like M and F, 
or male and female.  The Address Block seems to work OK more or less 
whatever you do.
The Wizard seems as limited and naff as the manual method, illustrated 
in previous postings, is versatile and powerful - but it does work, if 
you do exactly what it expects.
For my money, use the manual method every time.  It's cool.

Martin