Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Merge

Type, copy, click, paste, type, copy, click...

SNWidget — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:56:57 -0800

I've been manually sending out emails about test results and then entering them into a database - is there a way to automate so part of this process? I'm a teaching assistant for a graduate department. Students in various classes come into the resource room in which I work and take a variety of tests that are required to pass their classes. They take the tests, we grade them, enter the results into a spreadsheet, and then send them an e-mail saying if they've passed of failed.

Since it's the end of the semester, I got caught doing about 30 of these today. Copying and pasting the same form letter over and over into an Outlook window after having entered these all into an Excel spreadsheet seemed stupid. I know there's gotta be a way to automate this process at least partially - can you help me with it?

Here's the general gist of it all.

Student takes test from one of 4 classes.

Results (a pass or fail) is entered into an excel spreadsheet. Each class has it's own spreadsheet. Each student needs to take multiple tests, and they can be taken in any order at any time during the semester. If the student fails, they must retake the test. They get an e-mail for every time they take a test, up to 3 times. Students can take multiple tests at once as well.

After the student takes the test, they are graded and entered into the database. The student's name, test type, and whether they passed or not, and the date is recorded. And e-mail is then sent to them with a list of which tests they took, and whether they passed or failed the tests. There's a bit more info on the letter, but that's all standard form stuff.

Which parts of this can be automated? And how do I do it? I know about mail merge, but because of the continual nature of this, I'm having trouble seeing how to make this work. If not, is this just something I'm going to have to do manually?

I have available a PC, Excel, and Microsoft Outlook.

How to merge data fields into a plain text file?

geekgirl397 — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:04:23 -0800

Is there some way to do a "mail merge" type operation on plain text, xml or html files without using a word processor? I've been working on our company wiki and I want to bulk create a bunch of pages by merging certain field data from spreadsheets, csv files or other datasources into the template text files that I've created. The output should be XML or plain text.

I have a separate task where I have a simple html template that I'd like to populate with data pulled from a csv. The output needs to be standard, simple HTML (no funny MS Word markup)

I have access to MS Office, Open Office and Abiword but everything I've tried so far seems to "pollute" my files with word processor type formatting. (I am running KDE on Ubuntu 9.10, but I also have Win XP running as a virtual machine under Virtualbox - I have access to any version of the MS Office software, and obviously anything open source).

I'm sure there's some open source tool designed to merge text files. I'm not opposed to using a command line interface although I probably would prefer a GUI. My Google-fu is failing me on this one.

Any tips on how I should achieve this, or pointers to the tools I should be looking at?

thanks!

How to merge multiple text files keeping original filename and date

chimrichalds — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:07:01 -0800

Hi AskMeFi. Can someone tell me how to combine 350 text files into one large text file so that the original filenames and dates are included above (or below) each entry? I'm using Vista Home Premium and they are all generic .txt files. I'm moving all of my notes into Evernote but want to save the names and dates of the individual txt files.

Document Merging Nightmare

l33tpolicywonk — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:26:24 -0800

Help me merge documents with multiple reviewers in Word without losing my head! Okay, I admit it: the myriad of document merging options in Word (2003) is giving me a headache. Here's what I need to do:

I've been fact-checking a large document, using track changes where necessary to change facts. The original author has been adding material to a version of the document which doesn't include my fact checking changes. How do I incorporate his new text without losing my fact checks or (worse) having them revert back to the old, wrong stats?

Thanks everybody.

Merging folders in OS X

Silky Slim — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:49:01 -0800

Please help me merge two folders on my mac. Two mp3 folders. One internal, one external. Many duplicates. Many unique files.
What's the simplest way of merging them on the external drive without losing anything?
Googling has led me to the Terminal's mv command, which seems to be the simplest solution. I was just wary because of the delicate nature of the operation. Can someone post an example of the exact syntax I would need to use?
Or perhaps another (free) solution?
Also, I'm sure some of my files have been updated on my mac. Can I also make it so newer files replace older ones?
Many thanks in advance.

Merging worksheets in Excel.

schyler523 — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:15:45 -0800

Excel-Fu Filter: I need to merge latitude and longitude values (in two columns) corresponding to a specific site from one worksheet to the corresponding site in another worksheet. For example, in the Lat/Long worksheet column A is the site (AK03), B is Latitude, C is the Longitude. The other worksheet has column A (Site) and B (pH). The problem with a simple copy/paste is that Worksheet 2 has multiple listings for each site.

There must be a simple formula that would accomplish this, but I have searched Excel Help and many forums and am no closer to a solution. Hope me.

Office 2000->2003 Mail Merge Headaches

SirStan — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 04:33:47 -0800

Multi-Computer: How to deal with mailmerge differences between Office 2000 and 2003? For anyone who has used (or has users who have used) Office 2000, and then move to Office 2003 you should have run into this problem:

Office 2000 uses DDE to communicate between applications, meaning it retains formatting in a Mail-merge. If you format a cell as a having no digits after the decimal (round) and have a dollar sign before it -- a Word mailmerge will pull it through as the same.

Actual Value: 1.567 (Excel 2000)
Displayed value:$2 (Excel 2000)
Merged Value: $2 (Word 2000)

In Office 2003 the applications communicate in some other way (OLE DB?) that uses the actual values of the fields, instead of the formatted view.

Actual Value: 1.567 (Excel 2003)
Displayed Value: $2 (Excel 2003)
Merged Value: 1.567 (Word 2003)

I have a large number of fairly basic users who have step by step directions on their Office 2000 systems for how to mailmerge -- and it works. I have deployed a system with Office 2003 (as well as some users who are slowly learning to merge) and the question comes up -- "it used to work!" -- and no doubt; they are right.

Microsoft (as well as others) covers this in KB320473 -- and there are basically two ways to have Office 2003 work as 2000 did:

1. Enable the 'confirm conversion at open' and train users to select DDE.
2. Convert fields to text.

There is also a 3rd answer that is not covered ..

3. Use merge field codes.

My problem is that we have a few Office 2000 documents that are setup to be merged. The DDE v. OLE DB system use slightly different names for the column headers -- so a mailmerge document can either work natively in one system; or the other; but not both. If you enable DDE in Office 2003 both systems can work on it together -- but you need to enable this on each instance of Office (perhaps I can push it out via GPO?).

Merge fields is a non-starter. These guys don't understand mailmerge -- let alone syntax formatting.

Has anyone delt with a migration such as this?? What is the answer?

It came from the public sector

XMLicious — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:55:24 -0800

Why would two non-profit organizations merge? I was doing a bit of research on a particular non-profit organization that is a national concern in the United States. In the course of this I discovered that the NPO was originally formed decades ago and that for the first twenty years or so of its existence it provided its community services only to a single region within a single state. But then about ten years ago it started expanding its operations: first it became state-wide, then it became nation-wide and changed its name to a generic non-regional one.

Then it started gobbling up other NPOs in its sector! It has merged with something like twenty or thirty other NPOs all across the country, to the point that it's now the top or 2nd largest provider of its type of service in the nation.

This seems strangely aggressive and commercial to me, almost... metastatic, as though something has gone wrong in this organization or its entire non-profit sector. In the absence of the profit motive is there anything that could explain this sort of behavior, or might this be indicative that something nefarious is going on?

Checking into its Form 990's, it of course has shown a drastic increase in its revenue as it has grown. Its executives make between $200k and $500k, which from the reading I've done does not appear to be exceptional for a large NPO. The one thing which is a bit odd is that there's also a PR consulting firm that's always one of the top two or three contractors every year, which appears to be owned by a guy who was the press contact back in the 1900s when it was still a small local outfit. The compensation to the PR firm is usually in the $400k vicinity, if I recall correctly, but one year it spiked up to almost $800k.

The name of the NPO is Money Management International.

Merging tables in mysql

special-k — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:36:48 -0800

How do I merge three tables in mysql with duplicate entries for the primary key? I want to merge tables 1,2, and 3.
Each one has a field called ID (the primary key) which is set to auto_increment.

I want to merge all three tables into one. However, I cannot merge because mysql coughs up a duplicate entry on the primary key.

I'm guessing that the solution would be to insert a new field into table two that is Total number of records in table 1 + ID (and then do a similar thing with table 3). After that I would delete the ID field and make the new field the primary key. How do I do this?

Is there an easier way?

How to make a gradual merge of two portraits?

imperium — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:45:57 -0800

Does anyone know where I could find a web service to do that photo transform trick where Person A (say Margaret Thatcher) becomes Person B (say Tony Blair), generating a number of progressive stills in between?

How to merge mp4 files without re-encoding?

ptsampras14 — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:40:05 -0800

How can I merge mp4's with out re-encoding, or losslessly? I have 21 minute TV shows, divided up in to 3 clips seven minutes each. I need to merge them or join them into one large clip in mp4 format, the three clips are mp4 format. I tried Mediacoder, but that re-encodes them so it takes about a half hour.. I have 50 shows so thats not possible..
I need to merge the clips losslessly so it should be quick. I know YAMB can do this, but when I try, part 1's audio shows with video from part 2. I don't know how to fix it.

Help me merge avi files on a mac

citybuddha — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:59:12 -0800

Simple stuff. I am looking for a mac based application that will allow me to merge avi files. I have a flip camera and would like combine a number of sessions I shot with it. I am looking for share or freeware

Combining a ton of Excel files into one Excel file

cashman — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:41:32 -0800

How do I combine a lot of excel files into one file? I have hundreds of excel files that I want to combine into one excel file. I want the data from each file to get piled up into one big file, in one workbook. Just imagine if you had individual sports player stats, and you wanted to just see a big long list of player 1 separately, then player 2 separately, then player 3, on down.

This website suggests a command line solution, but I don't know if that works, plus I'm using .xls files though I know the csv files referenced at that solution are similar.

How do you suggest I do this?

How do I assign unique codes to my DIY tickets?

perpetualstroll — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:52:51 -0800

Is there a way to merge data from a spreadsheet with Photoshop? I'm looking to print off tickets with unique codes on each, is there a way to merge a spreadsheet of data with Photoshop for printing? Or any other suggestions on how to go about this?

Merge Excel worksheets?

ewiar — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:23:34 -0800

What's the easiest way to merge data from multiple Excel worksheets into one big worksheet I have a workbook with 223 worksheets. Each worksheet contains information about a given geographic area. The information for any given variable is in the same cell each time. I would like to convert this into one big worksheet.
---------------
Example of what I have:

Worksheet 1 [Area 1]:
Blue: 3
Black: 5
Green: 4

Worksheet 2 [Area 2]:
Blue: 5
Black: 2
Green: 5
------------------
Example of what I want

ONE BIG WORKSHEET
Area, Blue, Black, Green
1, 3, 5, 4
2, 5, 2, 5
--------------------------

If, for example, the value for 'Blue' will always be in cell B3, then, essentially I want a macro that works like this:

For i < 224
BIGSHEETBi=SHEETi!B!3

How do I create a page full of feeds?

joshnunn — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:22:19 -0800

Are there any simple sites that will help me combine a bunch of (RSS) feeds into a new page? I'm gonna be teaching my mother (and eventually other teachers) how they can blog and use wikis etc. I'll also be teaching her how quickly share links with others using del.icio.us or Google Notebook, and share interesting items from Google Reader/Bloglines. The problem is that all these things produce different feeds, and it'd be nice if she could have a page that she can set up that combines all the feeds into a single dynamic page that's constantly updating as she tags new stuff. All the different tools are useful in their own way - a blog for her own thoughts/opinions, Notebook for sharing pages and snippets, Reader for sharing other blog posts, but none have a simple way to combine together to form a 'super-feed'.

I realise there are many many ways to do this:
yahoo pipes
feeddigest
simplepie

But I need something with the simplicity of all the other tools I've mentioned. There has to be no setup, it's got to be free, and hosted. I thought I might be able to use Google Pages, or blogger, but neither let you pull in a feed and combine it with other feeds as new content.

I look forward to hearing if anyone has found something like this - I don't even know what phrases to Google with.

How to best manage a physical mailing list?

LongDrive — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:15:34 -0800

How to manage an unwieldy mailing list (for physical mailing) on a Mac. I use an opt-in mailing list that I use to send out promotional mailings from my business. This is a physical mailing list that I print labels from through Indesign. I have been maintaining these databases using the new Numbers software from Apple (because my both myself and my lovely Mac do not get along with Excel).

Every few weeks I am sent an updated master list that has new contacts added, and deletes out of date ones.

I am looking for some solution that can compare my local edited copy with the new master copy, and update my local copy as required.

Something mentioned in this thread would be useful, but I am not collaborating with another person per se, rather being provided an updated list every few weeks by a third party. (fyi, this is not spam)

If budget allowed, I would love to hire a Filemaker or Excel guru to build a custom thing for me, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any alternative software for Mac that could possibly perform this function or simply better manage this list?

Creating a personalized form letter

bove — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 10:20:15 -0800

Help me create custom documents out of pre-written paragraphs in Word. I am a professor and I teach the same class 3 times a year. I am trying to work on making my life more efficient. One of the tasks I am trying to do is to stockpile comments for student's final projects. Students tend to make similar mistakes and do similar things well. So I have written a number of comments that I can use based on what they have done in the paper.

What I need to figure out is an easy way to select certain comments and output a new document containing only those. Obviously, I can cut and paste, but I thought it would be really cool if I could somehow just click on the ones that apply to a specific paper and then have it spit out a new document with only those comments that I could email to the group.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. The only thought I have had is that I could put the comments into an Excel file and then do a mail merge, but the problem with that is that a mail merge is designed to use the same fields each time. What I want is to be able to customize which fields get expressed each time.

Right of way?

mphuie — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:08:14 -0800

Traffic question- Who has the right of way? Situation - left turn onto larger streets (that have a middle turn lane).

Who has the right of way?

1. Cars that use the middle turn lane as a stepping stone to stop and wait to merge into regular traffic.

2. Cars that take the turn into the correct lane.

I almost got into an accident yesterday because I was taking a turn into the left driving lane and someone that was stopped in the turn lane decided to merge into traffic at the same time. If there was a collision, who would be at fault? (The street had a 35 mph speed limit)

Question on converting numbers into formatted text with Excel.

Optimus Chyme — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:58:57 -0800

Question on converting numbers into formatted text with Excel. I would like to take a column of numbers in Excel, which are formatted like (123) 456-7890, but which are actually stored in Excel as 1234567890 with the format Number | Custom | (###) ###-#### , and be able to merge them into Word such that upon merging, the numbers show up as (123) 456-7890, not 1234567890. Word's merge brings them in as numeric values, not formatted text.

Is there any way to convert these numbers to text and let them keep the parentheses, space, and hyphen? Workarounds in either Excel or Word are welcome.

I have a 800 row spreadsheet with multiple similar number rows that eventually need to be brought into an InDesign doc with linked story fields, so you can see why I really don't want to do this by hand.

Dear MS Word: Start printing....NOW!

deliriouscool — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 12:47:24 -0800

I have a Word merge document with merged variable info sandwiched around a preprinted area in which I want no text - is there a way to insert some sort of break on the page that says to Word "No matter how big section 1 is, don't start printing section 2 until this point"? Thanks for any help! Basically, my entire document is an 8 1/2"x14" form - the top "half' is 6 3/4" long, with merged text printing from 1/2" to 6" or 6 1/2", depending on how much information is in a given record. My second, smaller set of information (an address) starts printing at 9 1/2" and goes for 3/4"

Because the first block of information varies in length, it's affecting the placement of the second block when different amounts of merge data are present - can I use section or page breaks to separate the two while still having everything print on the same page?

Seeking Basic Mail Merge Program

Mckoan1 — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:56:23 -0800

Would someone recommend a very basic Mail Merge Program. All I need is three elements: Ability to store names and addresses of customers Ability to write a letter and then merge the customer's addresses. I would like to have one or two sort fields to filter customers. Thanks in advance....Bruce

Help me merge Excel with Access:

2bucksplus — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:40:45 -0800

How do I add a 4,000 name MS Excel file to an existing MS Access database? I have a MS Access 2003 database of 15,000 names (with addresses and other info). I would like to add a 4,000 name Excel list to the Access database and am willing to buy a program or pay for the service. What's the best way to do this? This is Windows XP.

Help me prioritize the people I bug for money

ewiar — Tue, 01 May 2007 12:49:53 -0800

Excel-filter: I have a spreadsheet with a list of donations made over the past year. Unfortunately, when an individual has donated multiple times within a year there is a new row for each donation. Fortunately, that individual is assigned the same unique identifier. How do I make it so that each individual has one row with total donations for the year? In other words, I want to go from this:

001, John Smith, $10
001, John Smith, $15
001, John Smith, $30
002, Jane Doe, $10
002, Jane Doe, $12

to this:

001, John Smith, $55
002, Jane Doe, $22

Mail Merge Woes

wavering — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 06:16:11 -0800

How do I address a few hundred newletters from a mailing database? I have an 11x17 graphical newsletter, and 1/4th of one side of it is destined for an address. How can I take this file from InDesign and merge it with a mailing database so I can have the address automatically added and printed when I run these off?