Data Service Center May Compiled by: Katey Semmel Anne Rosen

Transcription

1 Data Service Center May Compiled by: Katey Semmel Anne Rosen

2 2

3 Table of Contents Toolbars...3 Viewing...3 Customizing...4 Mail Merge...5 Main Document...5 Data Source Document...7 Managing Fields...10 Adding Records...11 Working With Mail Merge Queries...13 Filtering the Data Source...13 Sorting the Data Source...14 Creating Mailing Labels from Data Source...16 Creating Data Source Files from DSC...19 Macros 21 Planning a Macro...21 Recording a Macro...22 Running a Macro...22 Editing a Macro...23 Graphics...24 Inserting Graphics...24 Changing the Size of Graphics...24 Moving A Graphic...25 Inserting WordArt...26 Appendix Lesson 1: Merge...28 Lesson 2: Data Source

4 Toolbars Toolbars contain shortcut buttons to perform many functions in Word. You can add toolbars to your screen from an existing list of toolbars or customize an existing toolbar. Viewing To view a toolbar: Click on View from the Menu Bar Point to Toolbars; a list of available toolbars will appear Click on the desired toolbar; the toolbar will appear on the desktop To remove a toolbar: Click on View from the Menu Bar Point to Toolbars Click on the desired toolbar Activity: (1) Add the Drawing toolbar to your screen; (2) Remove the Drawing toolbar from your screen. 4

5 Customizing To customize a toolbar: Click on View from the Menu Bar Point to Toolbars Click on Customize Click on the Commands tab; the following will appear: Click and drag desired buttons to gray area on an existing toolbar (Note: Click on button to get a description of the button function at the bottom of the Customize dialog box). Click on Close. To delete a button: Click and drag button off the toolbar while the customize dialog box is open. Note: If there is not enough room on an existing toolbar, you can add a new toolbar to your screen from the Toolbar dialog box. Activity: Customize the Standard Toolbar by adding the close button from the Files category; then delete the close button from the Standard Toolbar 5

6 Mail Merge Performing a Mail Merge allows you to quickly produce letters or other documents that may need to go to a number of people but contain some information that is different for each recipient. For instance, a mail merge could be used for sending out notices to parents about parent/teacher conferences. When performing a mail merge, you will be working with two documents, a main document and a data source. When you merge the main document with the data source you will be creating a third document. Note: For the purpose of this lesson, we will be discussing a form letter. However, please keep in mind that mail merge can be used for any type of document you may be sending out such as a memo or report. Main Document The Main Document is your form letter. This file contains the information that is constant for every letter as well as the fields into which the information from the data source will be entered upon merging the two documents. The following is an example of the type of letter you may be creating: March 10, 2000 John Doe 123 Maple Lane Wilmington, DE Dear Mr. Doe: This letter is to inform you that you are scheduled to meet with Ms. Harper on Friday, March 22, 2000 at 1:00 pm at Shue Middle School for a parent/teacher conference for your daughter Mary Doe. If you are unable to make this appointment, please contact the school at Sincerely, Betty Blueberry Hint: Prior to setting up the Main Document, you may want to create one letter (above) that is representative of the type of letter you will be sending. You can then use this letter as your model for setting up the merge fields in your form. 6

7 Prior to creating the Main Document you must create the Data Source Document. However, you must first establish that a Main Document exists. To establish the Main Document, perform the following steps: From a blank Word document, click on Tools from the menu Click on Mail Merge, the following appears: Click on the Create button Click on Form Letters Click on Active Window, the Mail Merge Helper will now look like the following: You have just established the Main Document, now you are ready to create the Data Source Document. 7

8 Data Source Document The Data Source Document contains the data that will be entered into the field locations on the Main Document when you perform the merge. To create the Data Source Document, perform the following steps: From the Mail Merge Helper, click on the Get Data button Click on Create Data Source, the following will appear: In the above example there are 13 unique data fields that are available to make up the Data Source Document. They include the following: Title FirstName LastName JobTitle Company Address1 Address2 City State PostalCode Country HomePhone WorkPhone From the Field Names in Header Row section, you want to delete any field names that do not apply and add any field names that are not in the provided list. To remove field names, perform the following steps: Click on the Field Name to remove Click on the Remove Field Name To add field names to the Field Names in Header Row section, perform the following steps: Type the Field Name in the Field Name Field Click on the Add Field Name Button 8

9 Note: Although not necessary, you can move the position of the field names in the Field Names in Header Row section by selecting the field name to move and clicking on either the up or down arrows. Activity: Change the Field Names in Header Row section to look like the following: Title FirstName LastName Address1 Address2 City State PostalCode TeachersName Date Time Gender ChildsName When all of the field names have been added: Click on OK, a save document dialog box will appear Type in a filename (i.e. data) for the data source Click on the Save button The following will appear: Click on the Edit Main Document button. You will go to a blank Word document The following Merge Toolbar will appear: 9

10 Begin typing the Main document (see Lesson 1: Merge). To insert a merge field, click on the Insert Merge Field button, the following will appear: Click on the desired field name, it will be inserted into your document. After entering information in the Main Document, save the document (ex: main document.doc) Note: Remember to insert punctuation and spacing where appropriate. A Merge Field code will be inserted for each data item from the data source document. Once you have created the Main Document, you will now enter the data into the data source document. To enter data into the Data Source Document: Click on the Mail Merge Helper button, the Mail Merge Helper dialog box will appear. Click on Edit under Step 2 (Data Source) Click on the desired file, the following will appear: Enter the data into each field (see Lesson 1: Merge) 10

11 Press the Tab key to move to a new field. When all data for one record is entered, click on the Add New button. When all records are entered, click on OK, the Main Document will appear. Click on the Mail Merge Helper button Click on the Merge button under step 3, the following will appear: Click on Merge Once you click on the merge button the Main Document and the Data Source Document will merge to form a third document containing the completed forms. Alternatively: If you change the Merge To option to Printer, merged document will be sent directly to the printer rather than a new document. Activity: Complete Lesson 1: Merge 11

12 Managing Fields To manage data source fields: Open the desired data source file (ex. data.doc) Add the Database toolbar to your screen Click on the Manage Fields button from the database toolbar; the following will appear: Make desired changes Click on OK Activity: Add the field RoomNumber to the data.doc data source document. Adding Records To add records to a data source document: Open the desired data source document Add the Database toolbar to your screen Click on the Data Form button from the database toolbar; the following will appear: Go to last record and click on Add New Make desired changes Click on OK 12

13 Note: To edit existing records, go to desired record number and edit as appropriate. Activity: Add the following record to the data.doc data source document; additionally, add Room Numbers ( ) to existing records. New Record Title FirstName LastName Address1 Address2 City State Mr. Bob Jones 456 Clark Drive Kingsridge Wilmington DE PostalCode TeachersName Ms. Webster Date March 8, 2000 Time Gender ChildsName 2:00 pm son Robert 13

14 Working with Mail Merge Queries You will use Mail Merge s query options when you want to extract or filter specific information from the data source in order to be merged. The query options can also be used to sort the information in your data source. The queries are based on the data contained in your data source document. Filtering the Data Source When you filter data you extract specific information based on criteria that you enter into a Filter worksheet. You can enter a single criterion or multiple criteria when filtering information from your data source. Using Single Criterion When you enter a single criterion statement, you simply give one data element to be filtered from the data source. For instance, you may want to merge only those people who live in Wilmington. When defining filter criteria, you need to define the field from which the criteria is based on, the Comparison operator such as equal to, greater than, less than, etc. and the Compare To data which is a data element from your data sources such as Wilmington. To filter records using a single criterion, perform the following steps: Prior to merging, click on the Mail Merge Helper button Click on the Query Options button, the following will appear: With the Filter Records tab active, click on the down arrow under field Select the desired field name (ex: City) Using the same procedure, select a Comparison option (ex: equal to) Enter Compare To: data (ex: Wilmington) Click OK Merge the document Only those records that meet the criteria you establish will be merged. Activity: Filter and Merge those students who live in Wilmington. Multiple Criteria When you use multiple criteria, you filter information from the data source by more then one criteria. For instance, you may want to merge only those students who live in Wilmington and have 14

15 Ms. Harper as their teacher. When using multiple criteria you need to define an and or an or operator in setting up your criteria. To filter using multiple criteria, perform the following steps: Prior to merging, click on the Mail Merge Helper button Click on the Query Options button With the Filter Records tab active, click on the down arrow under field Select the desired Field Name (ex: City) Using the same procedure, select a Comparison option (ex: equal to) Enter Compare To: data (ex: Wilmington) Select the and or or operator Enter the Field (ex: TeachersName), Comparison (ex: equal to) and Compare To (ex: Ms. Harper) information (Repeat previous step as necessary) Click OK Merge the document Activity: 1) Filter and Merge those student who live in Wilmington and have Ms. Harper as their teacher. Sorting the Data Source Prior to performing a Mail Merge, you can also sort your data source. To do so, perform the following steps: Click on the Mail Merge Helper button Click on the Query Options button; clear queries if necessary Click on the Sort Records Tab, the following will appear: Click on the down arrow by Sort By Select a field to sort by (ex: Lastname) Select additional fields to sort by in the Then By fields (ex: Firstname) Click OK Merge the document Note: The filtering and sorting options work in conjunction with each other. For instance, you can filter all of those students who live in Wilmington and sort in alphabetical order by the parents 15

16 lastname. Also, the filtering and sorting criteria information you enter will be saved until you change the settings. Activity: Sort the records first by the lastname field then by the firstname field. 16

17 Creating Mailing Labels from Data Source Once you have created a Data Source file for one Mail Merge, you can reuse that file in other mail merge procedures. The following are instructions on how you can use the Data Source file created in the Mail Merge lesson above to generate mailing labels. Perform the following steps: From a new Word document, Click on Tools Click on Mail Merge, the Mail Merge Helper will appear Click on the Create button under Main Document Select Mailing Labels Click on the Active Window button Click on the Get Data Button under Data Source Click on Open Data Source, an open dialog box will appear Double click on the data source file (i.e. data.doc) Click on the Setup Main Document button, the following will appear: Make changes and click on OK, the following will appear: appropriate 17

18 Create the label by clicking on the Insert Merge Field button and selecting the appropriate merge fields for the label. You should also include appropriate spacing and punctuation. When completed you should have something similar to the following: Click on OK, the Mail Merge Helper will appear Click on the Merge Button under Merge the data with the document Click on Merge again, the labels will be created Activity: Create mailing labels from the data.doc file. 18

19 Creating Data Source Files from DSC Note: The following information does not review how to generate data files from the Student Accounting System. If you need additional information on how to do this, please inquire about attending a User Report Generator class at DSC. It is possible to use a file you have downloaded from the DSC Student Accounting and/or Personnel system as the data source file for a mail merge. To do so, you will need to generate the report and save it as a.prn file (comma delimited file). When you save a data file from the online system as a.prn file, commas will be inserted between each data field. The commas make reading the data into a data source document very easy for Word. Additionally, please be aware that the fields will appear in the same format as the downloaded data (i.e. name field will be in uppercase, last name first). In order to use the data in a mail merge, you must define Header options in Word. These Header options set up the field headings for the data that is not generated when the file is downloaded and saved as a.prn file. Once you have set up the header options, you can then open your data source which is the file you downloaded from DSC. Note: In order for you to setup data downloaded from the DSC online systems as a data source document in Word, you need to be familiar with the data so you can assign field names, in same order, to the data. A hard copy of the downloaded file is helpful. Field names can include student name, homeroom, grade, etc. To set up Header options, perform the following steps: Click on Tools from the menu; click on Mail Merge Click on Create under Main Document; Select one of the options listed (ex: Form Letter ) Click on Active Window Click on Get Data under Data Source; click on Header Options Click on Create, the following will appear: Make appropriate changes to the Field Names Click on OK 19

20 Enter a filename for the Header Options (ex. Header1) Click Save Click on Get Data under Data Source Click Open Data Source Open.prn file (always stored in the directory c:\document) Click on Edit Main Document Enter the fields as desired into the Main Document Note: Please be aware that the data does not get inserted into a table as it does when you enter it manually. Rather Word draws the data from the.prn file. However, you can edit the data as you normally would and the changes are saved to the.prn file when you save your data source. Activity: Complete Lesson 2: Data Source 20

21 Macros Macros consist of a list of commands or actions that Word is to follow in order to accomplish a task that you define. Macros can be saved and run any time you wish to use them and are meant to save you time and effort. You may want to create a macro for repetitive tasks that you do on a regular basis such as typing letterhead information. Note: When you create a macro, you have the option of assigning the macro a button on the toolbar, a hot key combination such as Ctrl+L, or as a menu option. For the purpose of this lesson, you will be placing the macro as a button on the toolbar because it is typically the easiest and most practical way to access the macro. Planning a Macro Prior to actually recording the macro in Word, you should plan the macro. You will want to perform the steps of the procedure first (and possibly write them down) to ensure that everything works properly. Once you are confident of the procedure, you can then record the macro. Recording a Macro To record a macro, perform the following steps: Click on Tools from the menu Click on Macro Click on Record New Macro, the following will appear: Type in a name for the macro; do not include spaces (ex. firstname) 21

22 Click on the Toolbars button, the following will appear: In the Commands box, click on the macro name; drag and drop the macro name onto a toolbar. Right click on the macro name; make appropriate selections (i.e. rename, change button image to represent the macro). Click Close Enter the steps for the macro Note: You will not be able to use your mouse in the document when you are recording a macro. You can use your mouse for the toolbars and menus, however. Click the Stop button when all steps have been recorded Activity: Create a Letterhead macro that centers your school/district address and phone number (You can apply any formatting you wish). Running a Macro To test a macro, simply click on the button on the toolbar. Activity: Run the Letterhead macro. 22

23 Editing a Macro When you record a macro, Word converts your mouse click and keyboard entries into code which Word is able to follow when you run the macro. Unless you are familiar with this code, editing the macro using the macro editor can be difficult. If your macro is not complicated, it may be easier to delete the existing macro and re-record it so that is works the way you expect it to. To delete a macro, perform the following steps: Click on Tools from the menu Click on Macro; click on Macro again Select the Macro to be deleted Click on the Delete button Click on Yes to confirm the deletion Click on Close To delete the macro button from the toolbar: Right click on the Macro button Click on Customize With the Customize dialog box open, drag and drop the button down into the text area; close the box Activity: Delete the Letterhead macro and the corresponding macro button from the toolbar. 23

24 Graphics Inserting Graphics To insert graphics, perform the following steps: Click on Insert from the menu Click on Picture Click on Clip Art, the following will appear: Double click on desired graphic; click on insert clip The graphic will be inserted at the current cursor location. Changing the Size of the Graphic When you insert the graphic into your document, it may be too big or small. To change the size, perform the following steps: Click on the graphic; handles (black boxes) will appear around the graphic Move your mouse pointer to any of the handles, the pointer will change to a double headed arrow Click and hold on the handle Drag and move the mouse either in (smaller) or out (bigger) Release the mouse to establish the correct size Hint: It is best to change the size of the graphic by using one of the corner handles in order to keep the graphic proportional. 24

25 Moving A Graphic To move a graphic, perform the following steps: Click on the graphic; handles will appear around the graphic Use your Alignment buttons, enter key, tab key, etc. to move the graphic to desired location Activity: Insert a Graphic into a document; resize and move the graphic. Inserting WordArt To insert Word Art text in a document: Click on Insert from the menu Click on Picture Click on WordArt; the following will appear: Select a WordArt style 25

26 Click on OK; the following will appear: Type in your text; click on OK Resize and move WordArt text as appropriate Note: To edit Word Art, double click on the text. Edit as appropriate. Activity: Insert WordArt text (i.e. school name); resize and move 26

27 Appendix 1: Lessons Lesson 1: Merge Lesson 2: Data Source 27

28 Lesson 1: Merge Use the following data for the Data Source information: Record 1 Record 2 Record 3 Record 4 Title Mr. Mr. Ms. Mr. FirstName Paul John Lois Matt LastName Cook Dougherty Smith Lanzet Address1 123 South Road 678 Holly Drive 901 Lovering Avenue 234 Orchid Road Address2 Chalfonte Graylyn Crest City Wilmington Newark New Castle Wilmington State DE DE DE DE PostalCode TeachersNam e Ms. Harper Mr. Paul Ms. Wanamaker Mr. Shue Date March 12, 2000 March 18, 2000 June 1, 2000 April 14, 2000 Time 2:00 pm 3:00 pm 9:00 am 2:15 pm Gender son daughter daughter son ChildsName Mark Sam Sue John Use the following form letter as the Main Document: March 10, 2000 <<Title>> <<FirstName>> <<LastName>> <<Address1>> <<Address2>> <<City>>, <<State>> <<PostalCode>> Dear <<Title>> <<LastName>>: This letter is to inform you that you are scheduled to meet with <<TeachersName>> on <<Date>> at <<Time>> at Shue Middle School for a parent/teacher conference for your <<Gender>>, <<ChildsName>>. If you are unable to make this appointment please contact the school at Sincerely, Betty Blueberry When complete, merge the documents. 28

29 Lesson 2: Data Source From a New document, create a Mail Merge document using the following letter as the Main Document. The data source file is c:\document\merge.prn (note: view the data source file prior to beginning this lesson in order to determine the field names and field order for the Header Source). July 30, 2000 Brandywine School District 1000 Pennsylvania Avenue Claymont, DE To the Parents/Guardians of: <<Name>> <<Address1>> <<Address2>> <<City>>, <<State>> <<PostalCode>> Dear Parents/Guardians: As a parent/guardian of an incoming Kindergarten student next school year, we would like to welcome you to the Brandywine School District. A Welcome Day has been scheduled for both you and your Kindergarten student on Saturday, August 25, 2000 at Mt. Pleasant High School from 11:00 am until 3:00 pm. A free picnic lunch will be served. Hope to see you there! Sincerely, John Smith When completed, merge the documents. Then add the following record to the end of the.prn file and remerge the document: DOE JOHN S KN 123 MAIN ST WILMINGTON, DE