>>Steve
>>
>>How did you find the performance? I found when running a mail-merge with alot of records (1000 plus, maybe even as small as 500) my application had to run overnight. The problem was creating the data source in a word document. This was painfully slow.
>>
>
>After the book was published, we did some more looking into that problem and came up with an alternate version that creates the data source in Excel instead. You'll find information and updated code on Hentzenwerke web site (www.hentzenwerke.com).
>
>Tamar

Actually, I ran the old process on about a 60 record file (after the SQL Select) and it took seconds. So I don't see a real performance bottleneck.

My merge creates the back of some customized postcards, then I rearrange the cursor to print the customer's address on the front of the card (after prompting the user to reverse the order of the cards and reinsert them into the printer.

The whole thing (printing both sides) takes a minute or so on a 1.8gHz PC.

I do like the idea of using Excel -- it lightens up the logic a bit. But I used your logic verbatim (except for my wrapper code). Thanks for the timesavings (actually we were automating a function for a volunteer organization -- at no charge).

Glad to be able to hawk your book. BTW, it only seems to be available in electronic format from Whil. Don't know if it's still available in hardcover.

--Steve.