Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Office and document

MS Word Doc Merging?

nurgle — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:44:10 -0800

MS Word doc merging... too complex to pull off? Is it possible to have MS Word automatically take the contents of several fields of my choosing within one document, and have them copy into the fields of my choosing within another document, regardless of the contents of said fields? I have two documents that have several areas where users will be inputting data on patients. They need some of this data in another document that has similar fields as well. The two documents are not the same. Any ideas?

Epson Artisan 800 All-in-One Printer bought in USA? How to use in U.K?

omaralarifi — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:03:48 -0800

Just returned from fabulous 2 week holiday in New York. I Brought back Epson Artisan 800 All-in-One Printer from Staples costing $230. Unfortunately, I cannot use it in U.K., unless I plug voltage converter/transformer products. Has anyone else bought this set over there with more success? Any advice \ information appreciated. Please specify me What exact voltage converter product to buy & where to buy it from USA online store. Thanks. I checked again the Epson Artisan 800 All-in-One Printer power information:
Power Requirements

Rated voltage: 120 VAC
Rated frequency: 50 – 60 Hz
Rated current: 0.8 Amp

Power Consumption

Approx. 26 W ISO 10561
Approx. 5.5 W (Sleep Mode)
Approx. 0.3 W (Power Off Mode)
ENERGY STAR® compliant

This is why I cannot understand it blowing.

One form to rule them all...

freudenschade — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:57:21 -0800

Creating a form template for colleagues to use at work that needs to meet the following criteria: 1. Allow text fields and drop-down selection boxes. 2. Allow users to add additional text in should they see fit (i.e. doesn't disallow all input outside of form fields). 3. Will allow rows (the form will be arranged like a table) to be duplicated/copied & pasted, including the form fields contained within those rows. 4. Is formatted nicely enough to be passed along to a client and read clearly. 5. Is openable/usable by your average user who doesn't have access to super expensive/specialized software. What program/functions should I be using to create such a document?

I tried Word 2003, but it seems that using form fields requires you to "lock" the document, allowing no editing after the form structure is saved as a template. I had some success with Word 2007 (and its updated form functions), but everyone else in my office uses Office 2003, and even Microsoft's fix that supposedly allows 2003 users to open/edit/save 2007 files still won't allow for opening of DOTX (Word 2007 template) files. Acrobat seems out of the question because PDFs also only allow editing/input within form fields.

Is there something I'm missing in Word 2003 that would make it work for me? Other options? Help, please.

Why doesn't Word work right?

BeerFilter — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:56:21 -0800

Word 2003 won't open after double-clicking on a document, and the mouse doesn't work in the document area. If I double-click a Word file, the mouse hourglasses for a moment, then nothing happens. If I run Word by itself, I can open documents just fine, but outside of Word, I got nothing. I've already checked the file types and everything seems to be in order.

In addition, my mouse doesn't work in Word, but only in the actual document window. I can mouse all around the menus and toolbars and such, but I can't do anything with the mouse to the document. I can't highlight, I can't insert a cursor, I can't get the scrollbars to move. I CAN change the page view with the clickys in the lower left, but nothing else in the document window works.

Since Outlook 2003 uses Word 2003 for its rendering, I have the same problem in Outlook 2003. Menus & toolbars work fine but I can't highlight or do anything with the mouse to the actual text. I can use the keyboard to highlight and navigate.

In all other application, including the rest of MS Office, the mouse works fine.

Here's what seems like the key to figuring this out:

I already completely uninstalled Office 2003, ran CCleaner (my S.O.P.), and reinstalled it, and it's exactly like it was before. No opening documents outside of Word, no mouse in the text field.

I'm a FOSS guy at home, but this is at my relatively new job (in the IT dept, no less) and I haven't been inflicted with Word in a long time, so I'm not real hip to fixing MS Office screw-ups. Anyone got any ideas on this?

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?

Help me Tag and Index a Pile of Office Documents

Alterscape — Thu, 31 May 2007 17:01:32 -0800

Networked repository for Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents, full-text indexed and tagged. Does it exist? I'm interning at a small consulting company to earn some cash for grad school. My boss has asked me to research ways to store, full-text-search and retrieve about a thousand MS Office (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) documents that're currently stored in a well-organized (but non-searchable) heirarchy on a Windows server's shared folder. The initial plan was to use a Lotus Notes database (see my last AskMe), but for a variety of reasons that isn't moving forward as fast as he'd like.

The documents each relate to a project the company has worked on. Ideally, I'd like to be able to index the projects such that I can find all documents attached to the "foo" project, or all documents attached to projects for client "bar," as well as full-text search for documents containing "baz." If that's not achievable, I'm looking for customizable metadata fields, but just a general "tags" field or even straight full-text indexing would work if that's all that's out there.

The boss has suggested Google Desktop Search and either copying the archive to each machine or indexing the shared folder on each machine, but I'm convinced there has to be a more elegant solution. Unfortunately, whatever the solution is needs to work in a Windows-only software ecosystem and be relatively inexpensive. I'd love to roll my own php/sql or ruby-based solution, but he wants rapid turnaround and I don't have the skills to do this fast enough, sadly.

Any ideas what's out there, MeFites?