Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 84943
"Cannot proceed in Mail Merge at "Insert address block" until all fields matched"
Last modified: 2013-08-07 14:44:35 UTC
Hello. When using the Mail Merge Wizard, at section "3. Insert address block", I select a valid spreadsheet and tick the box to specify "This document should contain an address block". I match the fields that I am using to ones that are allowed: e.g. We do not have ZIP in the UK, so I specify that it is "PostCode", but do not bother matching the fields that I do not use in the address block, such as DOB and Phone Number. The wizard will not let me proceed until I have matched everything. This is very frustrating for two reasons: 1. I am not using these other fields, why on Earth should it care ? 2. There is no message to state why I cannot proceed, it just will not let me. Would it be possible in the short term to have an-on-screen notification saying "Not all fields matched" or something similar. In the longer term, can it please allow me to ignore fields that I am not using ? Many thanks for your help: the suite is marvellous. Regards
Reassigned to HI.
The current behavior is nasty if you are an expert. But usability studies showed that desaster happens when a user has a database where the fields do not match. So the workflow was changed in issue http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=51947 to always demand a matching of fields. With current spec http://specs.openoffice.org/writer/mail_merge/mailmerge_specification_pp1.sxw this works as designed.
Hello. Many thanks for your speedy response. I accept that there may be problems subsequently if the user has not matched fields, but the problem is that the user is not informed that s/he has to match fields: All they know is that the "Next button" is disabled and there is no clue as to why. Can a message be placed on the screen so that they know why it is disabled ? Many thanks, Peter
Issue type changed from defect to enhancement. Summary also changed from: Take the user by hand and show why Next button is disabled.
*** Issue 85019 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
UI relevant -> 3.1
->fl: I propose not to disable the "Next" button but to show a QueryBox in that case. This box informs the user about possibly unassigned fields. Something like: Not all database fields are assigned correctly. Do you want to assign them now? Assign now Ignore Cancel While "Assign now" calls the related dialog, "Ignore" continues to the next page (or any other page selected in the list of pages) and "Cancel" goes back to the current page. Any other idea?
move target to 3.2.
Branche date (feature- and code-freeze) for OOo 3.2 is nearly done. Therefore I change the target of this issue to OOo 3.x. If you think it is a stopper for OOo 3.2 please change the target back.