WD: How to Use Renumber Records to Resume Print Merge in MacWord

 Last reviewed: November 17, 1997
Article ID: Q33198

The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, versions 3.0, 3.01, 3.02, 4.0, 5.0, 5.1, 5.1a

SUMMARY

In Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, to continue a print merge from the last record that was printed when you don't know the record number of the last record, try adding a new field to each record using the Renumber command. Use one of the following four methods, depending on the format of the data file.

Use method 1 if the data is in a tab-delimited format. Use method 2 if the data is in a comma-delimited format, and method 3 if the data is in a Word version 4.0 table. If you are using Word version 3.0, 3.01, or 3.02, use method 1, since these versions can have mixed delimiters in the data. If you are using Word versions 5.0 or later, use method 4.

MORE INFORMATION

Method 1 (Word Versions 3.x or 4.0)

If the data is in a tab-delimited format, do the following to add a new field to be numbered:

  1. Activate the document that contains the records you are merging (the data document).

  2. Place the insertion point at the beginning of the first line. Type "number" (without quotation marks) and press TAB to create a new field in the header record.

  3. Place the insertion point at the beginning of the second line. Press COMMAND+SHIFT+KEYPAD 3 to select to the end of the document.

  4. On the Utilities menu, click Renumber. Click OK. Each record will be numbered with a tab added after each number.

  5. Open your main document and click Print Merge on the File menu. In the From box, enter the number of the record you want to start with minus 1 (the header line will be #1, so the first record will be #2), then click Print.

Method 2 (Word Version 4.0)

If the data is in a comma-delimited format, do the following to add a new field for numbering.

  1. Activate the document that contains the records you are merging (the data document).

  2. Place the insertion point at the beginning of the first line. Type "number," (without quotation marks) to create a new field in the header record. Note that a comma is used after the field name to separate this new field name from the rest.

  3. Place the insertion point at the beginning of the second line. Press COMMAND+SHIFT+KEYPAD 3 to select to the end of the document.

  4. On the Utilities menu, click Renumber. Click OK. Each record will be numbered with a tab added after each number.

  5. On the Utilities menu, click Change.

  6. Type "^t" (without quotation marks) in the Find What box. (Press SHIFT+6 to produce the caret.)

  7. Type "," (without quotation marks) in the Change To box, then click Change Selection.

    Word replaces the tabs with commas.

  8. Open your main document and click Print Merge on the File menu. In the From box, enter the number of the record you want to start with minus 1 (the header line will be #1, so the first record will be #2), then click Print.

You must remove the tabs because Word looks at the very first delimiter in a data file and then follows only that delimiter for the rest of the data. If the file contains mixed commas and tabs, the merge will give error messages. Note that this is true only with Word version 4.0. Word versions 3.x accept mixed file delimiters.

Method 3 (Word Version 4.0)

If the data is in a Word version 4.0 table, use the following method:

  1. Hold down the OPTION key and click anywhere in the first column to select the first column.

  2. On the Edit menu, click Copy.

  3. On the Edit menu, click Table and click OK.

  4. On the File menu, click New.

  5. On the Edit menu, click Paste Cells.

  6. Click in the first cell.

  7. On the Edit menu, click Table and click Delete.

  8. On the Utilities menu, click Change.

  9. Type "^p" (without quotation marks) in the Find What box, and type some text string that is not in the first column of data, such as "!@#$" (without quotation marks), in the Change To box.

  10. Click Change All to change all carriage returns inside the table to this ambiguous string so they won't be numbered.

  11. Hold down the OPTION key and click in the table to select it.

  12. On the Utilities menu, click Renumber and then click OK.

  13. Hold down the OPTION key and click in the table to select it.

  14. On the Document menu, click Table To Text, specify Tab Delimited, then click OK.

  15. On the Document menu, click Insert Table, specify Tab Delimited, and click OK.

  16. Hold down the OPTION key and click in the first column.

  17. On the Edit menu, click Copy.

  18. On the Window menu, click the name of the data document to be numbered.

  19. Click in the first cell of the table and type in a field name such as "num" or "number" (without quotation marks).

  20. Press the DOWN ARROW key to get to the first cell of the next row.

  21. On the Edit menu, click Paste.

  22. Open your main document and click Print Merge on the File menu. In the From box, enter the number of the record you want to start with, then click Print.

Method 4 (Word Versions 5.0 and 5.1)

In Word versions 5.0 and 5.1, the Print Merge Helper can be used to determine where the print merge was stopped. Before starting the print merge, do the following:

  1. On the View Menu, click Print Merge Helper.

  2. Locate the document in the Open dialog box.

  3. On the Insert Field Name list box (on the Print Merge Helper tool bar), select Record Number.

  4. Select the record number that was inserted (including the chevrons.) On the Format menu, click Character and select Hidden under Style. This includes the record number in the merged document, but it will not be printed.

  5. On the Print Merge tool bar, click the Merge Documents To A New Document icon. (The icon looks like two documents being merged into one.) You could also do this by choosing Print Merge from the File menu and then selecting Merge And Save Results In New File.

    Note: If the print merge is not done using the New Document option, there is no way of determining the last record that was printed because it is being directly sent to the printer.

  6. Print the merge document.

  7. If the print merge stops before finishing, determine the last name printed and choose Find from the Edit menu to locate the name in the merge document. When the correct name is found, determine the number of that record from the hidden number and add one. For example, if the last record that printed was 324, start with 325 (324+1=325).

  8. On the File menu, click Print. In the From box, type the number (in this case, 325) and in the To box overestimate the last record (9999 is the maximum) and click Print.

Additional query words: comma sort delimited
Keywords : kbmerge macword word6
Version : MACINTOSH:3.0,3.01,3.02,4.0,5.0,5.1,5.1a
Platform : MACINTOSH
Issue type : kbhowto kbinfo

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Last reviewed: November 17, 1997
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