[mso] Re: Making the computer think before a Word Mail merge
- From: "Kathie Felts" <subscriptions@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:58:53 -0600
Queries are not easy for the average American, and I find that I screw
things up more than I fix them when I try to program a querie. I have a
database in Access that I have been futzing with for months to get it to
tell me things about my donors that I want to know. It isn't yet where I
want it, but I haven't totally ruined it yet either.
Being that I'm talking about a word mail merge (as evidenced in the title
of the thread) and I'm starting with Access (as evidenced in the question)
the problem is the figuring out what the last donation plus 50% rounded to
the nearest $5 increment is. The amount of the last donation is in
Access. Last donation +50% rounded to the nearest $5 increment is not.
I'd like to make a string of donation suggestions based on the amount of
the last donation, so, how do I do that easily?
Recognize that Access for Dummies is a challenging text for me. I'm sort
of with Ray when it comes to the beauty of excel, but I don't know how I'd
program it to figure out what last plus 50% ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST $5. I
could do the percents, its the rounding I don't know yet.
I'm also offering that it might be last donation in a range? insert
suggested gift option set A. In a different range? Insert suggested gift
option set B. That might be the easiest way to program it in Excel, but
I don't know yet what that would look like.
Kathie
On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 21:43:11 +0100, Green <1z@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Kathie,
>
>> I'm moderately
>> happy with what I have
>
> What's that?
>
> If it's access... what *exactly* do you need?
> What are "a few others"?
>
> If you outline the problem in enough detail then the solution may
> present itself... with no programming :-)
>
> IMHO Assuming you are doing your merge to word... I would personally
> say don't make life any more complex for yourself.
> If you have to do the art=ithmetic in Excel then you may as well do it
> it access and save the export step and keep one set of data around.
>
> FWIW .. and again assuming your data is in access... I'd go with
> queries.
>
> HTH
> Lisa
>
>> Don't mean to insult the computer, I'm just wondering if
>> Access or Excel
>> is the best source of info if, when I merge my mailing I
>> want to have a
>> merge field that is "last gift +50% rounded to the nearest
>> $5 increment"
>> and a few others that do math based on previous giving.
>> I've stepped away
>> from my access programming (god I was dumb to start!) but
>> I'm moderately
>> happy with what I have, and don't have the time to program
>> this into the
>> database even if I wanted to.
>>
>> So, do I merge from Access and find a way to do math in the
>> merge, or, do
>> I export to Excel and find a way to do the math in the
>> merge, or do I
>> export to Excel, and program columns to do the math, then merge.
>>
>> AND, if I do the math in Excel and then merge, maybe I want
>> to program the
>> columns to say "if the last gift is between X Y, then the
>> three suggested
>> gifts should be ABC" and "if the last gift is more than Y,
>> the suggested
>> gifts should be CDE, and if less than X, then it should be
>> something less
>> than ABC"
>>
>> What do you think, oh wise ones?
>>
>> I'm on a pc with XP, presumably Office XP, 90% sure.
>>
>> Kathie
>>
>> --
>> Kathie Felts
>
>
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--
Kathie Felts
Executive Director
Blooming Prairie Center
Deep Roots, Bright Futures, Unlimited Horizons
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