Is it true that you cannot do a simple merge document directly from MS CRM??? 
The video I found indicated that you needed to export to excel and then merge 
with Word?  

I need the ability to have single letters that can be easily merged with a 
single contact by end users.  I would have thought this would be a base 
functionality for any CRM but it appears this is not the case.  

Is there a way to do this?  I am loving everything else I am seeing about 
MSCRM but this is a fundemental requirement and may be a show stopper for us. 

Could someone please comment.  I find it hard to believe that this cannot be 
done 'outta the box'.

Thanks
Mike

This might do what u want

http://www.gotdotnet.com/codegallery/codegallery.aspx?id=b44f8ee7-4d2b-4e39-9bfb-1119fffbe018



"Mike" <Mike@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message 
news:A395054A-5CAB-4FA4-AA07-FD3AABE101E7@microsoft.com...
> Is it true that you cannot do a simple merge document directly from MS 
> CRM???
> The video I found indicated that you needed to export to excel and then 
> merge
> with Word?
>
> I need the ability to have single letters that can be easily merged with a
> single contact by end users.  I would have thought this would be a base
> functionality for any CRM but it appears this is not the case.
>
> Is there a way to do this?  I am loving everything else I am seeing about
> MSCRM but this is a fundemental requirement and may be a show stopper for 
> us.
>
> Could someone please comment.  I find it hard to believe that this cannot 
> be
> done 'outta the box'.
>
> Thanks
> Mike 

Soz thought the link led to the actual snap inlook at bottom of downloads 
for  Snap-in for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 - Business Data Lookup



"Dyawlak" <dyawlak@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:eoDJ14zhHHA.588@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> This might do what u want
>
> http://www.gotdotnet.com/codegallery/codegallery.aspx?id=b44f8ee7-4d2b-4e39-9bfb-1119fffbe018
>
>
>
> "Mike" <Mike@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message 
> news:A395054A-5CAB-4FA4-AA07-FD3AABE101E7@microsoft.com...
>> Is it true that you cannot do a simple merge document directly from MS 
>> CRM???
>> The video I found indicated that you needed to export to excel and then 
>> merge
>> with Word?
>>
>> I need the ability to have single letters that can be easily merged with 
>> a
>> single contact by end users.  I would have thought this would be a base
>> functionality for any CRM but it appears this is not the case.
>>
>> Is there a way to do this?  I am loving everything else I am seeing about
>> MSCRM but this is a fundemental requirement and may be a show stopper for 
>> us.
>>
>> Could someone please comment.  I find it hard to believe that this cannot 
>> be
>> done 'outta the box'.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Mike
> 

Sadly enough you can do mail merge from the web client. However you can 
create documents using reports which would work like mail merge. You define a 
report in the report designer, set which fields to insert and after you 
uploaded the report to CRM you can run report on any list created using 
advanced finds.
The only drawbacks is that out of the box sql reporting services only 
generates pdf documents and not word. However the pdfs do work pretty nice 
but if this isn't enough there are components which allow you to create word 
documents. We use a component from softartisants. I find this works easier 
and better that the Ms supplied editor and the result is better, but is isn't 
cheap. 

-- 
Patrick Verbeeten (MCSD)
Lead Developer 
Aviva IT  
Web: http://www.aviva-it.nl


"Mike" wrote:

> Is it true that you cannot do a simple merge document directly from MS CRM??? 
> The video I found indicated that you needed to export to excel and then merge 
> with Word?  
> 
> I need the ability to have single letters that can be easily merged with a 
> single contact by end users.  I would have thought this would be a base 
> functionality for any CRM but it appears this is not the case.  
> 
> Is there a way to do this?  I am loving everything else I am seeing about 
> MSCRM but this is a fundemental requirement and may be a show stopper for us. 
> 
> Could someone please comment.  I find it hard to believe that this cannot be 
> done 'outta the box'.
> 
> Thanks
> Mike

The CRM Laptop and Desktop Outlook client allows you to perform Mail Merges. 
You also build a CRM View that can populate a Dynamic Excel workbook that can 
fuel any number of Word templates. The cool thing about using a Dynamic CRM 
Excel file is that you can include as many attributes as you want from the 
source entity. The uncool thing is that you cannot join on other entities in 
a CRM View (to get User data, etc.)


"Patrick" wrote:

> Sadly enough you can do mail merge from the web client. However you can 
> create documents using reports which would work like mail merge. You define a 
> report in the report designer, set which fields to insert and after you 
> uploaded the report to CRM you can run report on any list created using 
> advanced finds.
> The only drawbacks is that out of the box sql reporting services only 
> generates pdf documents and not word. However the pdfs do work pretty nice 
> but if this isn't enough there are components which allow you to create word 
> documents. We use a component from softartisants. I find this works easier 
> and better that the Ms supplied editor and the result is better, but is isn't 
> cheap. 
> 
> -- 
> Patrick Verbeeten (MCSD)
> Lead Developer 
> Aviva IT  
> Web: http://www.aviva-it.nl
> 
> 
> "Mike" wrote:
> 
> > Is it true that you cannot do a simple merge document directly from MS CRM??? 
> > The video I found indicated that you needed to export to excel and then merge 
> > with Word?  
> > 
> > I need the ability to have single letters that can be easily merged with a 
> > single contact by end users.  I would have thought this would be a base 
> > functionality for any CRM but it appears this is not the case.  
> > 
> > Is there a way to do this?  I am loving everything else I am seeing about 
> > MSCRM but this is a fundemental requirement and may be a show stopper for us. 
> > 
> > Could someone please comment.  I find it hard to believe that this cannot be 
> > done 'outta the box'.
> > 
> > Thanks
> > Mike

Thanks to all so far.  We are getting closer.  I really hope I can make this 
work as I really love everything else I have seen so far.

What I need to be able to do at a minimum is create and share merge 
templates with our entire team.  Some of this team will be offline laptop 
users.  Is there a way of syncing out documents to offline users?  What I 
would ideally like to see is a custom Area in the navigation pane called 
documents with a tree view of mergeable document templates. (We are currently 
using Goldmine which does this).

Is this possible to do with custom code?  I suppose the C360 product gets me 
pretty close.  Anyone know if it can merge in related record data?

Thanks again
Mike 

"Mike" wrote:

> Is it true that you cannot do a simple merge document directly from MS CRM??? 
> The video I found indicated that you needed to export to excel and then merge 
> with Word?  
> 
> I need the ability to have single letters that can be easily merged with a 
> single contact by end users.  I would have thought this would be a base 
> functionality for any CRM but it appears this is not the case.  
> 
> Is there a way to do this?  I am loving everything else I am seeing about 
> MSCRM but this is a fundemental requirement and may be a show stopper for us. 
> 
> Could someone please comment.  I find it hard to believe that this cannot be 
> done 'outta the box'.
> 
> Thanks
> Mike

>I suppose the C360 product gets me 
> pretty close.  Anyone know if it can merge in related record data?

I left c360 before they picked up Mail Merge so I don't know for sure, but 
the product description page says "Generate word documents with custom 
entities and insert related information (from accounts, contacts)", so it 
sounds like can... at least to some extent.

Mike,

Many times this type of word Mail Merge functionality is done in Outlook. 
User's tend to run CRM from Outlook and as such the word mail merge is in 
the Outlook Client.

In terms of linking to Excel..

With the right configuration it is actually not as complicated as it sounds. 
You see you can setup a permanent Dynamic Excel spreadsheet that gets 
automatically updated from CRM..

It is really a matter of .. it isn't obvious.. versus .. it can't be done 
quickly.

-- 
Anne Stanton, MBSCP-CRM
President, The Norwich Group
Principal, GlobalBrain LLC
The CRM Lady at www.CRMLady.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Written on a Lenovo T60p running VISTA Ultimate
Tracked in MS Dynamics CRM v3.0 Rollup 1, Outlook Client v3.0C (with hotfix)
Good Neighbor to Groove 2007, OneNote 2007, Office Enterprise 2007, 
Autotask, LinkedIN,
TypePad and More!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Mike" <Mike@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message 
news:A395054A-5CAB-4FA4-AA07-FD3AABE101E7@microsoft.com...
> Is it true that you cannot do a simple merge document directly from MS 
> CRM???
> The video I found indicated that you needed to export to excel and then 
> merge
> with Word?
>
> I need the ability to have single letters that can be easily merged with a
> single contact by end users.  I would have thought this would be a base
> functionality for any CRM but it appears this is not the case.
>
> Is there a way to do this?  I am loving everything else I am seeing about
> MSCRM but this is a fundemental requirement and may be a show stopper for 
> us.
>
> Could someone please comment.  I find it hard to believe that this cannot 
> be
> done 'outta the box'.
>
> Thanks
> Mike 

There is funcitionality for merging in CRM but I will tell you the C360 
product is a great product for the price.  I would consider it 2 - 3 version 
ahead of what is available in MSCRM today.  It has multi-relation capability 
and automatically recognizes custom entities.  You should download the trial 
and check it out.

mudhead

"Mike" wrote:

> Is it true that you cannot do a simple merge document directly from MS CRM??? 
> The video I found indicated that you needed to export to excel and then merge 
> with Word?  
> 
> I need the ability to have single letters that can be easily merged with a 
> single contact by end users.  I would have thought this would be a base 
> functionality for any CRM but it appears this is not the case.  
> 
> Is there a way to do this?  I am loving everything else I am seeing about 
> MSCRM but this is a fundemental requirement and may be a show stopper for us. 
> 
> Could someone please comment.  I find it hard to believe that this cannot be 
> done 'outta the box'.
> 
> Thanks
> Mike

Mike,

We tried several routes to create both simple and complex Word documents 
straight from CRM with MS tools.  They all were maddeningly complex and 
difficult to use.  Certainly not recommended for end-users.

You need to get WordMailMerge here http://www.mscrm-addons.com.  It just 
works and they are very responsive to questions and suggestions.  Heartily 
recommended.

Henricus

"Mike" wrote:

> Is it true that you cannot do a simple merge document directly from MS CRM??? 
> The video I found indicated that you needed to export to excel and then merge 
> with Word?  
> 
> I need the ability to have single letters that can be easily merged with a 
> single contact by end users.  I would have thought this would be a base 
> functionality for any CRM but it appears this is not the case.  
> 
> Is there a way to do this?  I am loving everything else I am seeing about 
> MSCRM but this is a fundemental requirement and may be a show stopper for us. 
> 
> Could someone please comment.  I find it hard to believe that this cannot be 
> done 'outta the box'.
> 
> Thanks
> Mike

Hi Mike,

You can use the Microsoft CRM Add-On WordMailMerge. This Add-On let you 
generate very easily single letters from the contact from of MS CRM.

Look at www.mscrm-addons.com for detailed description of the product.

Regards,
Christian Ternek
_________________________
www.mscrm-addons.com
Your company for MS-CRM ADD-ONS!

WordMailMerge for MS CRM
GroupCalendar for MS CRM
Telephone Integration for MS CRM
EmailSignature for MS CRM
"Mike" <Mike@discussions.microsoft.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag 
news:A395054A-5CAB-4FA4-AA07-FD3AABE101E7@microsoft.com...
> Is it true that you cannot do a simple merge document directly from MS 
> CRM???
> The video I found indicated that you needed to export to excel and then 
> merge
> with Word?
>
> I need the ability to have single letters that can be easily merged with a
> single contact by end users.  I would have thought this would be a base
> functionality for any CRM but it appears this is not the case.
>
> Is there a way to do this?  I am loving everything else I am seeing about
> MSCRM but this is a fundemental requirement and may be a show stopper for 
> us.
>
> Could someone please comment.  I find it hard to believe that this cannot 
> be
> done 'outta the box'.
>
> Thanks
> Mike