Conditional Letters in Word Using IncludeText Field is Slow

Spencer Smith

I am in the process of updating our conditional letters outside of Mail to individual workstations. I'm starting with Membership Cards - they are essentially ack letters with cards attacked. I am using the recommended “IncludeText” field within Word and through a conditional statement. There are 5 different files.

When I open the source file to perform the merge, Word freezes for 30-45 seconds, before I can even select the data source. Then, it comes back, select the source. Again it is freezing. Select Merge and it works. Then it freezes again. It is maddening. I will miss Mail Merge and the spinning globe!

Aside from recreating the letters into one document or changing our internal process to batch gifts by groups, I'm open for ideas. Any tips on using "IncludeText."

Ben Regier

Long shot, but this could happen if your data file is in a different part of your network than your word merge template. If that's the cause of the slowness, putting the data somewhere local could speed things up.

Spencer Smith

Good thought but in this scenario all of the files are on my desktop. I did find that only having two files worked best. No slowness or freezing and my colleagues can adjust to this new process.