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

September 21, 2007 12:47 PM

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?

posted by deliriouscool to Technology (8 answers total)

You could insert a 1-column, 2-row table, laid out so that the two cells fall in the areas where you want your respective text blocks to appear. Then just plop your merge fields into the two cells with appropriate alignment settings on the cells; so long as the information merged into the top cell doesn't grow beyond the boundaries of the cell, you should get static placement for both fields.

It's a bit of a kluge, and may not work well if you're trying to make a particularly pretty document, but it works.
posted by cortex at 1:01 PM on September 21, 2007

Not my forte, but I think you want to insert Text Boxes and convert them to Frames (using the Text Box's Property sheet). Once I did that on my test document, the Frame properties allowed me to position the frame a number of inches relative to the page which seems like what you want.

I have no idea how this will effect your other formatting but it should be a start.

Good luck.
posted by mmascolino at 1:02 PM on September 21, 2007

Do I understand your question correctly? It sounds to me like you have something you want to always print beneath the pre-printed area of the page (which something is of fixed length, yes?), and something else you want to print above the pre-printed area, but which varies in length (but never exceeds the space above the pre-printed area, yes?).

If so, I think this can be done rather simply, but I can't check my theory here at home because I don't have Microsoft Office here. I'll check it tomorrow at work and let you know.
posted by trip and a half at 7:50 PM on September 21, 2007

Oh crap, tomorrow's Saturday. I'll check it on Monday if someone who isn't an idiot like me hasn't solved it for you.
posted by trip and a half at 8:04 PM on September 21, 2007

Seconding mmascolino. You want to put two text boxes on your page, one that fills up the entire region above the preprint, and the other that fills up the entire region below it. Put your first merge field in the top box, and the second field in the bottom one. You can make the text boxes a fixed size and give them fixed positions on the page, so no matter what goes in the top one, the bottom one will start in the same place.

Just pretend Word is Publisher for the duration of this exercise.
posted by flabdablet at 5:15 AM on September 22, 2007

Best answer: Or, you could do pretty much the same thing with a one-column, three-row table, where your first merge field goes in the first row, the second row fits over your preprinted stuff, and the third row has your second merge field. You'd just need to give the cells fixed sizes and turn off all the stuff that makes cells expand to fit content.
posted by flabdablet at 5:19 AM on September 22, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone - I don't know why I didn't think of tables - and if that doesn't work, the frame idea is very clever. We're testing now - I'll report back!
posted by deliriouscool at 7:31 AM on September 25, 2007

Response by poster: Tables worked beautifully - thanks!
posted by deliriouscool at 2:52 AM on September 28, 2007