Conditional Letters in Word Using IncludeText Field is Slow

Spencer Smith
Spencer Smith
Tenth Anniversary Name Dropper Participant Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions

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."

Comments

  • Ben Regier
    Ben Regier
    Sixth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant

    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
    Spencer Smith
    Tenth Anniversary Name Dropper Participant Facilitator 1

    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.

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