Microsoft KB Archive/258512

= How to automate Word from Visual Basic to create a mail merge for mailing labels =

Article ID: 258512

Article Last Modified on 5/14/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office Word 2007
 * Microsoft Office Word 2003
 * Microsoft Word 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition

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This article was previously published under Q258512



SUMMARY
This article describes how to automate Microsoft Office Word from a Microsoft Visual Basic application to create and to execute a mail merge for mailing labels.



MORE INFORMATION
The sample code in this article uses a tab-delimited text file for the data source. The text file has the following fields:
 * Contact_Name
 * Address
 * City
 * Postal_Code
 * Country

You can use any text editor to create the text file data source. For example, you can use Notepad.

When you create the data source, remember to separate the fields (columns) by using a tab character and to separate the records (rows) by using a carriage return. The following is an example of how the text file might appear: Contact_Name   Address           City       Postal_Code      Country Maria Anders   Obere Str. 57   Berlin      12209      Germany Thomas Hardy   120 Hanover Sq.  London      WA1 1DP        UK Hanna Moos  Forsterstr. 57  Mannheim     68306     Germany Laurence Lebihan 12, rue des Bouchers Marseille   13008        France

Note You can use any other data source instead of the tab-delimited text file. For example, you can use a Microsoft Access database.

Step-by-step example
 Start a new Standard EXE project in Visual Basic. By default, a form that is named Form1 is created. Add a CommandButton to Form1. Select the Microsoft Word Object Library for the version of Word that you intend to automate, and then click OK.  Copy the following code to the code window of Form1. Private Sub Command1_Click

Dim oApp As Word.Application Dim oDoc As Word.Document 'Start a new document in Word Set oApp = CreateObject("Word.Application") Set oDoc = oApp.Documents.Add With oDoc.MailMerge 'Insert the mail merge fields temporarily so that 'you can use the range that contains the merge fields as a layout 'for your labels -- to use this as a layout, you can add it       'as an AutoText entry. With .Fields .Add oApp.Selection.Range, "Contact_Name" oApp.Selection.TypeParagraph .Add oApp.Selection.Range, "Address" oApp.Selection.TypeParagraph .Add oApp.Selection.Range, "City" oApp.Selection.TypeText " " .Add oApp.Selection.Range, "Postal_Code" oApp.Selection.TypeText " -- " .Add oApp.Selection.Range, "Country" End With Dim oAutoText As Word.AutoTextEntry Set oAutoText = oApp.NormalTemplate.AutoTextEntries.Add("MyLabelLayout", oDoc.Content) oDoc.Content.Delete 'Merge fields in document no longer needed now 'that the AutoText entry for the label layout 'has been added so delete it. 'Set up the mail merge type as mailing labels and use 'a tab-delimited text file as the data source. .MainDocumentType = wdMailingLabels .OpenDataSource Name:="C:\data.txt" 'Specify the data source here

'Create the new document for the labels using the AutoText entry 'you added -- 5160 is the label number to use for this sample. 'You can specify the label number you want to use for the output 'in the Name argument. oApp.MailingLabel.CreateNewDocument Name:="5160", Address:="", _ AutoText:="MyLabelLayout", LaserTray:=wdPrinterManualFeed

'Execute the mail merge to generate the labels. .Destination = wdSendToNewDocument .Execute

'Delete the AutoText entry you added oAutoText.Delete End With 'Close the original document and make Word visible so that

'the mail merge results are displayed oDoc.Close False oApp.Visible = True

'Prevent save to Normal template when user exits Word oApp.NormalTemplate.Saved = True End Sub The Name argument for the OpenDataSource method in this code references the data source as c:\data.txt. If the data source has a different path or a different file name, modify this line in the code accordingly.  Press the F5 key to run the program, and then click Command1. A mailing label document is created by using data that is taken from the data source.

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