Bug 98014 - MAILMERGE: Request for user defined fields
Summary: MAILMERGE: Request for user defined fields
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
5.1.0.3 release
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Mail-Merge
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Reported: 2016-02-19 17:54 UTC by Mike Sapsard
Modified: 2017-05-12 17:42 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Mike Sapsard 2016-02-19 17:54:04 UTC
Currently the form fields are predefined in the Wizard. Would it be possible to permit the user to add user defined fields? This would extend the scope to documents that do not need addresses and also documents with other data to be entered.
Comment 1 Buovjaga 2016-02-26 19:06:23 UTC
Do you know you can drag and drop any columns from the data source view (F4) into the document?
Comment 2 Mike Sapsard 2016-02-27 13:27:50 UTC
Thanks for that. I have tested it and I no longer need the wizard. Next time I'll RTFM.

It appears that the DB is still used in the background.
Comment 3 Buovjaga 2016-02-27 13:35:01 UTC
(In reply to Mike Sapsard from comment #2)
> Thanks for that. I have tested it and I no longer need the wizard. Next time
> I'll RTFM.
> 
> It appears that the DB is still used in the background.

I got this info from Jan-Marek, who is the main guy currently working on MM. I only use it myself, when I test bugs, so I can't tell you off-hand, at which point you would do the drag and dropping :)
Comment 4 Mike Sapsard 2016-02-27 16:15:34 UTC
Once you have opened and started drafting the template, click <F4> to open a panel showing the data sources. You can then drag and drop from the field titles into your form at any time. It works well. When you try to print, a dialog opens and asks whether to print to file or printer. It is explained in help under Mail Merge.

When I just tried again, I could not directly select a spreadsheet as the source. On the previous occasion I selected the appropriate table, and must have already connected the spreadsheet to a DB when using the wizard, because it no longer works without that. That was the reason for my comment that there was a DB in the background.
Comment 5 Justin L 2017-05-12 17:42:45 UTC
After reading through the comments, it sounds like OP no longer has an issue.

Mailmerge / fields / database records are very flexible, but it takes a bit of trial and error to figure out how all the pieces fit together. Closing as works for me and OP.