- TNP Nation
- McMasterdonia
Hi team,
Given the challenge of distributing our print publications to multiple different forum types, I've completed a spreadsheet tool that will allow us to mail merge into the five types of categories we need. Check it out here.
For those not familiar with mail merging, essentially you'd prepare the text version of TNS and then you'd insert a field that corresponds to the spreadsheet. For instance, it could be '|IMG|'. Then when you hit mail merge, it replaces that field with the relevant code that is suitable for the various forum platforms.
Tl;dr you code one version and hit mail merge. It'll then generate codes for each of the different forum categories.
Step 1: Code in one document (see this example).
Step 2: Download the mail merge add on for google docs.
Step 3: Click "add ons" then "mail merge" and then "Start". A menu will pop up on the right, where you link to the "Mail Merge Comms Coding" sheet.
Step 4: Insert the relevant fields throughout the google doc. You do this by selecting the relevant field (i.e. Forum) and clicking "add".
Step 5: You can then either go through and add in the field in each place you need it. Or you can copy and paste the field where you need it (which I think is easier).
Step 6: One you've inserted all the codes you need, go to the menu on the right and select "Merge to: Letters" and then merge. It will then merge all the fields and generate a document like this. The document will contain the various different codes for each forum platform that you need.
Happy to take anyone through it who is interested. It may seem complicated, but once you learn it, you'll realise it is far easier than manually coding the releases for all of the different platforms.
Given the challenge of distributing our print publications to multiple different forum types, I've completed a spreadsheet tool that will allow us to mail merge into the five types of categories we need. Check it out here.
For those not familiar with mail merging, essentially you'd prepare the text version of TNS and then you'd insert a field that corresponds to the spreadsheet. For instance, it could be '|IMG|'. Then when you hit mail merge, it replaces that field with the relevant code that is suitable for the various forum platforms.
Tl;dr you code one version and hit mail merge. It'll then generate codes for each of the different forum categories.
Step 1: Code in one document (see this example).
Step 2: Download the mail merge add on for google docs.
Step 3: Click "add ons" then "mail merge" and then "Start". A menu will pop up on the right, where you link to the "Mail Merge Comms Coding" sheet.
Step 4: Insert the relevant fields throughout the google doc. You do this by selecting the relevant field (i.e. Forum) and clicking "add".
Step 5: You can then either go through and add in the field in each place you need it. Or you can copy and paste the field where you need it (which I think is easier).
Step 6: One you've inserted all the codes you need, go to the menu on the right and select "Merge to: Letters" and then merge. It will then merge all the fields and generate a document like this. The document will contain the various different codes for each forum platform that you need.
Happy to take anyone through it who is interested. It may seem complicated, but once you learn it, you'll realise it is far easier than manually coding the releases for all of the different platforms.