Issue 18473 - Make data sources portable with document (to make Mail Merge similar to MS Word)
Summary: Make data sources portable with document (to make Mail Merge similar to MS Word)
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: Writer
Classification: Application
Component: code (show other issues)
Version: OOo 1.0.0
Hardware: All All
: P3 Trivial with 3 votes (vote)
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: AOO issues mailing list
QA Contact:
URL:
Keywords: ms_interoperability
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2003-08-21 05:18 UTC by rtrout
Modified: 2013-02-07 22:41 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: ENHANCEMENT
Latest Confirmation in: ---
Developer Difficulty: ---


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Description rtrout 2003-08-21 05:18:15 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.
Comment 1 Frank Schönheit 2003-08-21 12:30:25 UTC
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.
Comment 2 Frank Schönheit 2003-08-21 12:32:04 UTC
adding ms_interoperability keyword, since I think this is kind of an
interoperability issue
Comment 3 jwt 2008-04-06 15:45:15 UTC
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.
Comment 4 bettina.haberer 2010-05-21 14:59:28 UTC
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on
my owner to the owner "requirements".