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Mail merge help needed

Jake5
8 - Asteroid

Hello,

 

I have a workflow that outputs multiple address records as depicted in the 1st screenshot below.  Is there an Alteryx solution for having each record create its own coversheet (.word or .pdf) that can be combined into one document?  So using my example, I would like for it to create a 2 page .word (or .pdf) document, one for each of the two firms/addresses listed on the spreadsheet.   

8 REPLIES 8
alexnajm
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

I would check out the Report Text tool followed by a Render tool! I am not sure how exactly you want your output to look in each of the pages, but the Render tool will allow you to add a separator which for Word should be different pages!

 

The Tool Mastery series is one of my favorite, so hopefully this can help guide you: 

Tool Mastery | Report Text texte du rapport berichtstext (alteryx.com)

Tool Mastery | Render rendu anzeigen (alteryx.com)

Jake5
8 - Asteroid

Thank you, Alex.  I'm trying to apply both tools and am attaching the workflow I have so far.  I'm not sure how the Report Text tool would be used in this scenario as all text I need is accounted for in the Text Input tool.  The attached word.doc is the end goal of what I'm trying to produce as the final output.  Each page will serve as an address coversheet within an envelope, so field positioning is important.  Which tool would I used to map out field placement within the word doc?  Also, my current output creates a separate word doc for each record.  How do I create one, consolidated word document where it's one record per page?  On the Separator drop-down, I didn't see an option for different pages.

alexnajm
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

You need the Report Text to get it into the Reporting tools because that's the only way to output as a Word doc. I am not sure why the Table tool is there, so I removed it and updated the Report Text tool. The separate pages are caused by the Separator in the Render tool!

alexnajm
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

Make sure you remove the spaces in your headers as well!

Jake5
8 - Asteroid

Thanks, Alex.  This was very helpful!  But one thing I'm stuck on is how to remove spaces when field values are null.  In the 2nd record,  Address Line 1 and Address Line 3 are null and can be a common occurrence when a firm does not include an ATTN or Suite #.  Or there can be instances where they use the Address Line 1 field but not Line 3 or vice versa.  I tried using a formula tool to shift values over for those instances but that began to get very complicated on the If/Then front.  Is there an easier solution for this?  Attached is page 2 of the output which shows this type of spacing I wish to eliminate.  Appreciate all the help thus far!

alexnajm
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

@Jake5 - it should do this automatically... see the attached

Mail merge help needed snap.PNG

 

Otherwise yes I would suggest a complicated Formula to collapse this all together into one cell separated by newlines (enter keys) to make it work!

Jake5
8 - Asteroid

Ok, so I agree the workflow you included seems to remove the spaces in the output automatically for record 2.  It is when I try to shift the field labels over a few spaces...that's when spacing on the output begins to appear on record 2.  Do you know if there's a way to do this shift while preventing the extra spacing?  See attached.  

alexnajm
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

I am not sure of another way besides maybe trying tabs - otherwise I would default to a Formula!

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