We are using ASPOSE.Word in a custom piece of software that we built. The custom software package is used to handle insurance claims.
One of the features we built into the software was the ability for the users to create a Word merge document on their local PC. We did this by creating an Excel document with all of the fields we knew would be available in the data table. We then created a empty merge document and tied it to the Excel document. We built an install file that installed both components on the end users machine. Therefore, users could create a merge document without having to be attached to our SQL database. Once they created the document they could then upload the document to the server through a simple interface we created.
When a user is in the web app, on a Claimant, they can bring up a dialog that has a grid containing all of the custom merge forms that have been uploaded. When they click on a document in the grid, the web app creates a data table based on the current claimant and merges it with the selected document.
That had all been working very well. Recently we had users that wanted to add graphics and some other items to the document, which gave us an error. We upgraded from version 1.2 to version 1.6 which corrected all of the errors concerning the graphics. However, we now have a new problem. The document merges and sends to the user machine just fine. The problem we have now is that when the document is opened, it displays a dialogue to open the original Excel merge source. That did not happen when using version 1.2 of the component. Version 1.2 seemed to remove that information from the document (which was a good thing). How can we mimic that behavior in version 1.6 of the control? Please let me know if you need a sample document and I will send on ASAP.
Many Thanks,
Danny
Hi Danny,
Please send the document that brings the dialog box to word@aspose.com. We will address this promptly.
Thanks for the documents.
TWCCPLN3.doc you’ve sent me was built based on AtlasMergeForm.dot template and that template has mail merge data source specified in it which retrieves data from your Excel spreadsheet.
I’ve found that mail merge data source information is stored in one internal structure that was not preserved by Aspose.Word 1.2. It is correctly preserved by Aspose.Word 1.6 that explains why you didn’t get the prompt with earlier versions.
I need to preserve that structure because it contains other useful information in addition to mail merge data source and I don’t think I need to remove mail merge data source information from the document, at least not automatically.
I simply suggest you remove the mail merge data source information yourself from the original document (in your case AtlasMergeForm.dot) or simply deassociate your document from the template. The template is an empty document after all, why do you need your documents associated with it?
To deassociate the document from the template, open the template in MS Word and select Tools/Template and Add-Ins command and clear the Document Template field in the dialog box.
Roman,
By having the merge doc associated with the Excel file, the user can use the Merge toolbar in Word to get a list of available fields. That was the whole purpose of having a template for the users… With the Merge toolbar, our users can create merge letters even if they do not have a good knowledge of the data fields being exported. It would be unpractical for us to edit every document uploaded by our users, to remove the merge data source, since the whole goal of the project was to create an automated system.
I truly understand the need to preserve the internal structure. Is there a way that I could use the BuiltInDocumentProperties collection to remove the structure that contains the merge data?
Many Thanks,
Danny
It’s not in the document properties.
Ok, I’ll provide a property so you can deassociate the document from the template.