HOWTO: Creating a fax shot in WordPerfect using the Merge function

ID: ZTN1209

This Zetafax technical note applies to:

• Zetafax 7.5.1.91

Summary

This document describes how to perform a fax shot (single document to multiple users) using WordPerfect and the Zetafax client program. This procedure uses the Merge facility in WordPerfect, and the Zetafax embedded addressing feature of the Zetafax printer.

Note:  These instructions do not apply to thin client sessions.

More information

Before starting, you need to make sure the list of recipients you are going to use is in a format that WordPerfect can read. For further information on the file formats that can be used as a Mail Merge data source or for more detailed information on how to use WordPerfect Merge, please refer to the documentation for WordPerfect or visit http://www.corel.com/.

Creating a WordPerfect Merge document

The Merge feature enables you to send a fax shot - e.g. to fax the same document to multiple recipients - at once. Merging places data from the database program (or specially formatted document) into standard text documents in one automatic operation. There are two components of every merge: 1) the standard document to be duplicated, called the Form document, and 2) the source of the names and information to be merged into the standard document, called the Data document.

This part of the procedure concerns WordPerfect and is for information only. If you encounter difficulties at this stage, you should contact Corel for help with the Merge feature.

1. In WordPerfect, create or open the document you want to send to all your recipients. This can be a single page letter, for instance, or a longer document. From the Tools menu select Merge. This will launch the Merge dialog box.

2. Click on the Data source button and select the relevant option if your contact records are readily available in one of the listed source files/formats.   Skip to step 6 if you are using a previously created file.

3. If not, select Create Data File to create a new data file.
4. In the Create Data File dialog box, specify a name for each field you intend to use for the merge and click Add. Examples of field names could be ClientName for the recipient, Organization for the organization to which the recipient belongs, and FaxNo for the recipient's fax number. Repeat this operation for each additional field you want to create. Press the OK button when all the required data fields have been specified.

5. In the Quick Data Entry dialog box, populate the fields with the contact details for the merge. You can create as many records as necessary by clicking on New Record, then click OK when you are done and save the changes in a file.

6. Back in the Merge dialog box, click on Form Document and select Create Form Document. In the resulting window select 'Use file in active window', (this dialog box will only occur if you have text in the active document).
7. In the Associate Form and Data dialog box, browse to the newly created data file and click OK.     Alternatively use the browse button to select the file you have selected as a 'data source' in step 2.  Click OK.

8. Once the Data file and Form document have been correctly set up, cancel the Merge dialog and save the Form document in .frm format, so that you can come back to it later if necessary.

Adding the Zetafax embedded addressing commands

Once you have created the Merge document and the Data source in WordPerfect, you need to add Zetafax embedded addressing commands to your document. Two commands that are mandatory to this process are %%[FAX] and %%[SEND]. The following instructions explain how to use these fields with the document you have created.

1. At the top of the main document, insert a blank line and type in %%[FAX:
2. With the cursor still flashing after the colon, go to 'Insert Field' button on the Merge toolbar and select the database fields that contain the fax number.  End the line with a closing square bracket ( ]). The line should look something like this:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      %%[FAX: «fax_number»]
3. Once the %%[FAX] field has been inserted, add a blank line at the very end of the document and type in %%[SEND]. This is the command that instructs Zetafax to automatically send all the faxes.
4. Save the Form document in .frm format again.

Merging and sending the fax shot

Now that the main document has both WordPerfect merge settings and Zetafax embedded addressing commands in it, you are ready to create all the faxes and send them off.

1. With the Form document open, go to the Tools menu select Merge or click on the Merge button on the Merge toolbar.
2. Click on the Merge button. WordPerfect will create a new document containing a copy of your main document for every address in the data source (or the range of addresses you selected from the Data file).
3. Make sure the Zetafax client is running, and then print this document to the Zetafax printer. The embedded addressing commands inserted earlier on will auto-complete the Zetafax Addressing dialog that normally pops up at this point. Zetafax will send the faxes to the list of recipients specified in the merge document.

If at any time you want to do the same fax shot again, all you need to do is open up the Form document you saved. Amend it if required, and then run through the instructions in the "Merging and sending the fax shot" section.

References

For additional information on Embedded addressing, please see the following Zetafax technical note:

ZTN1011-HOWTO Using Embedded addressing.

Last Updated: 15 July 2002 (MM)