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Mail merge - from Mellel to a pile of envelopes

Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2021 5:18 pm
by Amontillado
I've been whining for years about not having a utility that will do a mail merge outside of a word processor. I searched Google, I asked friends, and nobody could point to anything other than utilities that merge email. If you want to do a print mail merge, turn off your ego and install something that rhymes with bird. I just didn't want to do that.

I've had reason to delve into a little desktop publishing lately, discovered Affinity Publisher, and today found it has data merge features.

Affinity is not a word processor. It would be a horror to write in Affinity. Clay tablets and sharpened sticks would be better - but I found I could import from Mellel into Affinity in mere seconds. It's just a few mouse clicks to add the merge placeholders in Affinity, and then you've got your mail merge ready for old-timey postage stamps.

Cool!

Re: Mail merge - from Mellel to a pile of envelopes

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:21 pm
by macsailor
Amontillado wrote: Sun Apr 18, 2021 5:18 pm
Affinity is not a word processor. It would be a horror to write in Affinity. Clay tablets and sharpened sticks would be better - but I found I could import from Mellel into Affinity in mere seconds. It's just a few mouse clicks to add the merge placeholders in Affinity, and then you've got your mail merge ready for old-timey postage stamps.

Cool!
Affinity Publisher is a great app. You have to save the Mellel document (you want to import to AF) as a docx file, and then import them to Affinity Publisher through Menu - File - Place.

Re: Mail merge - from Mellel to a pile of envelopes

Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2021 12:41 am
by Amontillado
macsailor wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:21 pm
Affinity Publisher is a great app. You have to save the Mellel document (you want to import to AF) as a docx file, and then import them to Affinity Publisher through Menu - File - Place.
I concur. It's great and it's actively developed. It will only get better.

Have you ever heard the old joke about two hunters treed by a bear? One of them is tightening the laces on his shoes. When the other hunter tells him he can't outrun a bear, he says "I'm not trying to outrun the bear, just you."

That joke comes to mind when I fire up Affinity. I always have documentation to write. I'm careful about use of styles and do what I can to produce attractive documents.

Now, with Affinity, where I can get away with PDF my documents are going to have just a little more zing than my coworkers. Heh, heh, heh...