Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with merge

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?

How do I remove duplicates and then merge two excel files?

perpetualstroll — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 18:25:32 -0800

In MS Excel, how do I remove duplicates, clean up a document and merge two files together? I have found a few threads in Google, but none of them have quite what I'm looking for, I'm hoping someone will have experience doing this. Right now, I have to do this manually, but I figure there has to be a more efficient way of completing this.

This is a bit complicated, but I'll try to simplify as best as I can:

I have two excel files, A and B.

File A contains the fields PART NUMBER and PRICE and is laid out as follows:

a1000 $1.25
a1000 $1.25
a1000 total $2.50
a1001 $3.25
a1001 total $3.25
a1002 $3.31
a1002 $3.31
a1002 total $6.62
etc. etc.

Questions:
1) How do I remove all the duplicate records?
2) How do I remove all the rows that contain the word "total" in the PART NUMBER field?

File B contains a master list of a lot more information for other parts and the formatting needs to be retained. After cleaning up File A, is there a import those values to a designated column for their corresponding part numbers in File B?

Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

What is the best way to sync multiple iTunes libraries?

ISeemToBeAVerb — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 08:12:13 -0800

What is the best way to sync multiple iTunes libraries? I need to find a good method of syncing multiple iTunes libraries. Currently I have a library at work, home, and one on my laptop. I can't just clone the drives because each one has different music on it. Basically I need to merge all the libraries together. Does anyone have a good solution for this?

Merging Excel Sheets (With a Macro?)

chrisamiller — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 11:16:29 -0800

MS Excel help needed. I need to set up some sort of automated merging macro in excel and am having trouble tracking down the best way. The details, and much I have two spreadsheets - the first is a form with some pretty formatting, and the second is a list of several hundred names. I need to set up a macro or script that will take each name from the list, stick it in the "name" field of the form, and then save the form with a new filename (something like name.xls).

If this were in any kind of plain text format, I'd whip up a perl script, but I have little experience using advanced Excel features. Using the Office 2003 XML format is also not an option, because these have to work with older versions of Excel (Office 2000).

Any solutions or even pointers to appropriate search terms would be much appreciated.

mail-merge-fu

TurkishGolds — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 07:12:18 -0800

MailMergeFilter: I want to print a large number of uniquely numbered gift certificates for different businesses using Microsoft Office, and I can't seem figure out a good solution. I have to print gift certificates for many different businesses that all have different, pre-determined unique consecutive numbers. I'd like to do the design for the gift certificates in Microsoft Publisher and then merge the data (buisness name, address, phone number, and gift certificate number) in from Excel.

For Example:

40 gift certificates for "Company 1" numbered 41-1 ... 41-40
20 gift certificates for "Company 2" numbered 12-20 ... 12-40
80 gift certificates for "Company 3" numbered 17-120 ... 17-200

...and so on.

So far I've been able to mail merge the business details into publisher, but not the gift certificate numbers.

To further complicate things, I need to print the gift certificates 3-up on a page, and I haven't been able to find a way to get the merge to change data on that 3-up page. (If I just type all of the numbers into excel, and try to merge those into the document, page 1 will be 3 gift certificates all with the same number.)

Because of the volume of certificates that I need to print, I'm looking for the least labor intensive solution.

What's the best way to accomplish this with these tools? Suggestions for other ways of accomplising this task are appreciated too.

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.”

anastasiav — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:32:40 -0800

Complex Excel to Word merge question is the Its going to be difficult to explain this clearly, so bear with me.

I have two Excel files I need to merge into one (long) Word document.

The first file is a straightforward merge: Names and addresses and such. Each one of these (lets call them the Customer Records) are tagged with a specific, unique, numeric ID. There are 400+ customer records.

The second file is more complex: It is a list of purchases made by the customers. Some customers have made dozens of purchases, some only one or two. Each customer purchase has the unique customer record ID attached, plus other information. There are 3000+ purchase records for these 400+ customer records.

The output that I want is:
A single customer's contact information and buying history on a single word document page, then a page break, the next customer, and so on for 400+ pages.

So imagine

customer ID
Name
Address
email
telephone
comment

purchase 1 data (date, amount, product)
purchase 2 data (date, amount, prodcut)
purchase 3 data (date, amount, product)

[page break]

Next customer record

... and so on -- but remember that some customers have 20+ purchases and some have only one.

I'm all good with the Name, address, merge part -- the part that is stumping me getting only the purchase data that is tied to that specific cusomer ID on the page I want it.

Is there some way within the Word Merge function to tie the Customer ID in the name/address record to the Customer IDs listed in the purchase record, so that only the customer purchases that are tied to that customer ID appear on each page? In a database program I would do this by creating a form with a repeating pannel, but that isn't an option here.

My predecessor in this job, who was largely incompetent in may respects, managed to create an output like this, and I am taking a lot of abuse for not being able to replicate her results. Unfortunately, I only have hard copy of her output, not any electronic copy I can reverse engineer.

Its possible that she did the whole thing by hand, as a copy/paste back and forth from Word to Excell and back again, but the sales director swears that "she just pressed a button" and it all merged together.

I can change the Excel to .txt or .dbf or other formats if I need to, but the output must be in a Word document.

I'm going to a meeting, but will reply to any questions in a few hours when I return.

Thanks for your help!

Mail merging above my abilities...

Amizu — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 06:07:46 -0800

I need help with the Microsoft Word mail merge feature. I interview people and I take notes on the computer during the interviews. I have some basic text that should always stay the same, and I also have various merge fields (sorry if the terminology is wrong) so that, for example, I don't have to type in the applicant's name, address, etc. This seems like the typical use of the mail merge feature. But then it gets more complicated, because I would like to be able to take notes in one record without having those notes be duplicated in the following (or previous) records. Essentially, I'd like to be able to do 3 things in the same document: (1) some text that remains constant in every record - e.g. interview factors; labels, etc. (2) some text that changes consistently - mail merge fields - e.g. applicant's name, DOB, etc.; (3) some text that I add to each record that can't be encapsulated in a mail merge, but that I don't want copied to other records - my interview notes. Is this possible using Microsoft Word's mail merge feature? If so, how?

Creating a Directory with Word and Excel?

pzarquon — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 11:11:52 -0800

Is there a quick way to create a mail merge directory in Word from an Excel spreadsheet, broken down by a specific field (department, category, etc.)? This seems like a Microsoft 101 question, but the built-in Help doesn't seem to address this specifically, and online help from Word 2002 gets into code I can't even begin to understand. I get that "Directory" is what Microsoft is calling this sort of end document, and I know how to create a mail merge containing all records and specified fields. But, using a company directory as an example, I'd like to create a document that keys on a "Department" field (which would be the same value for {x} records), generating however many pages with "Department" in the header and all records matching it on subsequent pages, but then throwing in a page break and starting a new set of pages when the value in "Department" changes. For example, from:

STEVENS, BOB | ACCOUNTING | 555-1512
TANAKA, SCOTT | ACCOUNTING | 555-2352
YU, LISA | ACCOUNTING | 555-2362
LOPEZ, JAMES | AUDIT | 555-2351
SWEET, LINDA | AUDIT | 555-3635

To:

ACCOUNTING -----
STEVENS, BOB - 555-1512
TANAKA, SCOTT - 555-2352
YU, LISA - 555-2362
AUDIT -----
LOPEZ, JAMES - 555-2351
SWEET, LINDA - 555-3635

Again, I know this seems like basic functionality, and I apologize if it insults the intelligence of you Mail Merge gurus out there! The weird thing is, I might be able to do this working from Access, but this is a smaller project. Thanks!

Question number 10188

holloway — Tue, 14 Sep 2004 15:30:46 -0800

Hi, I'm looking for some PDF software that lets you draw ontop of an existing PDF (like lines, text), and some other software that lets you merge multiple PDF files (there was a similar question a few days ago but that was for OSX). If I get to be choosy, I'd prefer cross platform libraries. Thanks!

Question number 5849

skylar — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 06:14:37 -0800

Do you 'merge' with your partner when you have sex? (more inside...)