Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 18473
Make data sources portable with document (to make Mail Merge similar to MS Word)
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:41:32 UTC
OpenOffice has always required that Form Letter (1.0) / Mail Merge (1.1) requires that a Data Source is configured in the user's profile. Users converting from Microsoft Office find this baffling, as MS Word allows information on the source of mail merge data to be included in the Word document. In addition, if a document that contains Mail Merge fields is shared with another user (either in place or by email etc), it requires that user to also configure a Data Source with the same name (and to work out what that name should be, by using the Show Fields option). Therefore lets find a way to make the Mail Merge data source information travel with the document. It would be preferred if the Mail Merge data source could still be modified using 1.1's Exchange Database feature. PROPOSALS: USER-DEFINED AND DOCUMENT-DEFINED DATA SOURCES: Create a generic ability to define Data Sources in the document (as opposed to in the user profile) so that Data Sources are either user-defined (referring to defined in the user's OOo profile) or document-defined. The feature could then be used for purposes in addition to Mail Merge. The 'Data Sources' pane would be updated to indicate which Data Sources are user-defined and which are document-defined - either by indicating with a different icon, or by making user data sources and data sources parent to the data sources in the Explorer tree. MAIL MERGE UI Provided that 'document-defined data sources' is implemented above, the Mail Merge UI in 1.1 could largely go unmodified, although it may be beneficial to emphasise the use of document-defined data sources, or make it the default (perhaps even make it an Options preference?). I'm new to proposing enhancements. What else can I do (as a non-programmer) to help this along? Feel welcome to make your own proposals on how this could be tackled.
adding DBA issues list to CC, since this would be a collaborative effort. confirming as valid RFE, and for the moment assigning to user experience team.
adding ms_interoperability keyword, since I think this is kind of an interoperability issue
Is anything happening about this? It seems as if this covers the problem that I have, which is that the fields in the mail merge document relate to a particular data source such as a query. If a different query is selected the fields are no longer valid even if they are present in the new query. In order to use a different data source every field has to be altered. This should not be necessary.
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on my owner to the owner "requirements".