Standard Mail Merge Reports

Calm can be used to produce text-based reports, such as those for Accession Registers, Receipts for Accessions or Catalogue Reports, using the Mail Merge facility in Microsoft Word. For further examples see the complete List of Reports.

Please note: The instructions provided in this manual relate to Office 2007 and newer versions of Word, with some information about Office XP/2002 (version 10), Office 2003 (version 11).

Mail Merge reports use data exported from your Calm records in combination with Word Templates to create Word Documents. The Word Templates have the file extension .dot and are located in the Calm folder. (When Calm is installed, master copies of the Word templates are supplied in the Calm templates folder - usually dscribe\Archive\Templates. When you run a report for the first time, its template will copied to your Calm output folder - usually dscribe\Archive\Output (unless a copy of the template already exists in that folder). If you ever need to modify the templates, be sure to do it to the copies in the Output folder. When Calm is updated, templates in the templates folder will be overwritten with the new default templates, but those in the output folder will not be altered. The data from your Calm records is exported as a text file with the extension .txt into the Calm output folder. Please Note: In a client/server configuration, these folders are found on the client PCs. Any changed files will need to be copied to other client PCs if they are to be employed by all Calm users.

If Word is not installed on the computer where Calm is (either your computer or a hosted server), you can copy these files to another computer and complete the merge there. Just copy both the template and output file in Calm's output folder (usually dscribe\Archive\Output), paste them somewhere on the computer with Word, and then double-click the template file to complete the merge.

The standard Word templates that are provided with Calm can be customised to suit your individual requirements.

When you run a Mail Merge report the data that is exported from your Calm records is controlled by a file called mailmrg.ini. This file can also be customised to change the data that is exported when a particular report is run.

For more complex reporting requirements Axiell offers a Custom Reports design service.

Running a Mail Merge report from Calm

Mail merge reports are usually accessed via the side button strip in Calm. To create one:

Have the records you wish to export to the report open in a hit list in Calm and have them sorted in the order you would like them in

Click the button that begins the report on the side button strip. In the catalogue, you will need to first click the button and then the button that begins the report you require
The default template for the report you have chosen will open in Word. Word will show you a dialogue box reading 'Opening this document will run the following SQL command'. Just click OK on this
Make any changes to the template you wish before the data is added to it. (These changes will not be applied the next time someone reports using this template. To make permanent changes, see below)
Select the 'Mailings' tab
Click on 'Finish & Merge'
Click 'Edit Individual Documents...' on the dropdown list
Click 'All' on the 'Merge to New Document' dialogue box
Click 'OK' to merge the data from your Calm records into the template

(In versions of Word older than 2007, click the "merge to new document" icon on your mail merge toolbar or use the Mail Merge wizard available from the 'Letters and Mailings' option on the 'Tools' dropdown menu.)

There are specific instructions for each individual report throughout this guide, including information on the button to click to begin the report. For example, see the Accessions database section for Archival Accession Receipts and Accession Register reports. The reports list has more information about each individual report.

When you have produced the report you can use the Word printing features to create a paper copy of the document.

Editing the Mail Merge Templates in Word

Default mail merge templates, meant to work for any organisation, are provided with Calm. However, you may wish to alter them to fit your organisation's way of working. These changes may be as small as using a different font or adding your organisation's name to the header, or as large as exporting a completely different set of fields, in a completely different style, to use a report for a completely different purpose.

If you wish to make permanent changes to a template, start in the database the report is created from:

Have one or more records open (it doesn't matter which ones)

Click the button that begins the report on the side button strip. In the catalogue, you will need to first click the button and then the button that begins the report you require. Doing this will enable Microsoft Word to associate the correct data source with the template
The default template for the report you have chosen will open in Word. Word will show you a dialogue box reading 'Opening this document will run the following SQL command'. Just click OK on this
Make any changes to the template you wish. Most changes can be made as if you were editing a regular Word document. The only difference is if you want to add data from a Calm field not currently in the document. To do that, click where you want the field to go and then click 'Insert Merge Field' on the 'Mailings' tab. If you cannot see the field there, you will need to add it to the mailmrg.ini file
Save the template as a 'Word 97-2003 Template' (this is a .dot file) somewhere you can easily find it. Note: as soon as you select 'Word 97-2003 Template', Word will change the destination you are saving in to its templates folder
Give the template the same name as the template you wish to replace (for example, if you were editing the Conservation Job Report template, that would be ConsJobSheet). Those names can be found on the complete report list
Close Word
Find the template where you saved it
Copy the template (right click it and choose 'Copy') and paste it in the Calm output folder (usually dscribe\Archive\Output), overwriting the existing template in there

Note: The original templates are still in the templates folder (usually dscribe\Archive\Templates) if you ever need them.

Calm will use whatever template is in the output folder (and if there is no template in there, it will use whatever template is in the template folder) with the correct name. If you want to use two or more different templates, it is possible to keep the templates elsewhere and put whichever one you want to use in the output folder when you want to use it.

Customising the mailmrg.ini file

Mailmrg.ini is a file that determines which fields are exported from Calm records for use in your report templates.
To add or remove fields from your mailmerge reports, customise the mailmrg.ini file.