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For example, the field «LastName» would only contain people’s last names.Ī record is an entire set of data fields that relate to a single thing or person. Excel spreadsheets, Access databases, or Word document tables are good examples of data sources.Ī data category that stores a specific piece of information. For example, it has records containing the names and addresses of the people a mail merge letter is sent to. The starting document contains the field names for the variable information, like the names and addresses that will be inserted.Ī file that contains the information to be inserted into the main document during a mail merge. When you do, the name of the document will still appear first, but it will be followed by the data in the selected field- Unsolicited Pitch-Frank and Unsolicited Pitch-Doris, for instance.(Main Document) A document that contains the information that is the same for each merged document. Select the name of the recipient under the first step and then choose Assign For Use With File Naming from this pop-up menu. By default they’re assigned with the Pages’ document name followed by a number- Unsolicited Pitch-1, Unsolicited Pitch-2, and so on. It’s also within step 2’s pop-up menu that you can choose how your merged documents will be named. The letter M will appear to the right of the selected email address indicating that the addresses in this column will be used as the To address in your messages. If you intend to email the results of your work, select the email address that appears in the list under step 1 and, from step 2’s pop-up menu, choose Assign As Email Recipient Address. In order for this to work you must create a list of email addresses for your recipients in your Numbers document (having an email placeholder in the Pages document isn’t necessary). In step 5 you can choose to email a copy of your merged document to your recipients.
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When you make a selection in the second step, its name appears under the Assigned Placeholder Tags heading in the first step. Select the one associated with the entry you highlighted in step 1 (in the example you’d choose FIRSTNAME). Click on the pop-up menu next to the second step and you’ll see a list of all the placeholders you’ve created in the Pages document. Select the first item in the list (in my example you’d select Frank).
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When you do, the information from the first column in the Numbers document will appear in the Data Record Items area. In the area marked with a 1, choose Selection of Numbers Table from the pop-up menu and click the Import button. Launch the Pages Data Merge app and walk through the numbered steps. In Numbers, create a spreadsheet that includes the data you want to merge. (The column header need not match the placeholder names you’ve created.) Now select all the rows that contain the data you want to merge. You then launch Numbers and create a spreadsheet that includes columns for each entry. Select placeholder text and assign a script tag to it. Repeat for each bit of text that you wish to use as a placeholder. Into this field enter the name of your placeholder-FIRSTNAME, ADDRESS, PHONE, MATENAME, or whatever’s most appropriate.
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A Script Tag field will appear in the Text pane to the right. Now select the first placeholder entry and from Pages’ Format menu choose Advanced > Define As Placeholder Text.
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