Category:Word Merge

SmartSimple's Word Merge functionality provides the ability to dynamically create an MS Word document from underlying SmartSimple data.

Configuring a Word Merge in SmartSimple is a three-step process:

1. Create the MS Word document that will be used as the template. (See Adding Form Fields to a MS Word Document for instructions.)
2. Upload the Word document to a SmartFolder. (See Uploading Word Merge Document to a SmartFolder for instructions.)
3. Create the Special - MS Word Merge custom field that maps the SmartSimple fields you wish to merge to the Word template.

• The SmartSimple MS Word merge fields can use any existing Word mail merge template, including the existing merge fields within that template. This is possible because the mapping of the merge fields in the template to the appropriate SmartSimple data fields takes place in the field settings within SmartSimple. No changes are required to the original template or to the merge fields.
• The entire merging process takes place on the server and the user does not need to run Word (or even have Word installed for this process to function). As long as there is a program installed on the user’s computer that can open a Word document, the process will work.

Note that SmartSimple's Word Merge feature works with all versions of MS Word. As opposed to using the user's version of Word to create the merged document, the merge is performed by SmartSimple's Word Merge engine using an programmatic object compatible with MS Word (all versions). Once the merge is launched, SmartSimple streams the resultant document back to the client’s browser where the extension of the streamed document (*.doc, *.docx, etc.) will trigger the launching of MS Word. If the user does not have MS Word on a Windows machine, the process will simply open whatever program is associated with the document's extension.

• When the Word Merge is invoked from a single object (grant, organization, contact, etc.), a single document will be merged and created.
• When the Word Merge is invoked from a list view, a mail merge is executed that creates a merged document based on the number of records selected for the merge process. This could be used to create approval letters or grant agreements for a list of approved requests. See Exporting List View Results to Microsoft Word for further information.