Mail Merge, File Merge?

[Martin Boekers]

I have a job that is going to hit in a couple weeks for about 800 nametags.

I haven't done a merge before. Is it easy to set up?
How should I have the client specify them? In a spreadsheet, Word Doc or other.

They will be a basic plastic nametag 3x1.5 inches with a graphic off to the left side, name, title, position and organization to the right of that &
vector cut.

I guess it's time I learned one of the time saving functions of Corel

Thanks in advance for making my life simpilar!


Marty

[Dave Johnson29]

How should I have the client specify them? In a spreadsheet, Word Doc or other.

Hi Marty,

I have not done that in Corel, but usually mail merge systems operate from an Excel style CSV file.

CSV stands for Comma Separated Values.

A standard Excel CSV file will have the field names separated by commas in the first line then the next line will have the data separated by commas...

FirstName,LastName,Street1,Street2,City etc
Dave,Johnson,PO Box 0000,,Snowflake

If a comma appears in the field data then quotes will be used...
If Street1 = 1200 Warner street, suite 201

it would look like this...
Dave,Johnson,"1200 Warner street, suite 201",,Snowflake

Look in File, Print Merge and follow through the Wizard for setting up which fields to use.

Then assign use File, Print Merge to assign the Edit merge fields or Perform merge when ready. Not sure how you will tell the laser to pause if you are changing stock for each tag.

[Scott Challoner]

This is where most print merge help originates from thanks to Roy Brewer, a member here.
http://www.engravingconcepts.com/flash_coreldraw.htm

I think Excel will work fine.

[Bill Jermyn]

Yes, a comma separated file will work. It can be a .txt file too. What I do is to set the page size in Corel to be slightly larger than the badge, then after you click 'print merge', in the print dialog, go to layout/edit and to the right of 'Edit Basic Settings' select how many badges across and down you want. I'm not sure either how you manage to change stock, but I would probably break the text file apart into separate jobs that would fit on a sheet. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a way around that though.