Articles

Sesame Seeds
Merge Print Database Records On-the-Fly

Visualize having a button like this at the bottom of your database record:

You click on it, and get a merge document selection menu like this:

SELECT MERGE DOCUMENT

5160 Address Labels.doc #10 Envelope.doc Final Invoice.doc Follow-Up Letter 1.doc Order Confirmation.doc Order Reminder.doc Thank You Letter.doc

You select 5160 Address Labels.doc then get a second menu like this:

CHOOSE RECORD(S) TO MERGE

ALL Retrieved Records THIS Record Only

You select ALL Retrieved Records then get a final confirmation prompt like this:

You answer "Yes," and the next thing you know you've been magically transported to Microsoft Word with your merged mailing labels displayed and all ready to print out.

When the printing job is done, you quit Word and you're automatically returned to the same database record you were on.

Does merge printing get any easier than this? We don't think so. With your data in Sesame and your simple or sophisticated merge docs in MS Word, you've got a One/Two combo for merge printing that can't be beat. Find out how to set it all up (it's easier than you might think) in this month's issue.

Sesame Seeds
Need a Function that Sesame Doesn't Have? Design It Yourself!
Q&A has all those built-in programming functions like @Left, @Num, @Text, @Len, @Userselect and so forth. Sesame has these, too, plus a boatload of new ones not found in Q&A. (Just wait till you see 'em all!). But what do you do if you can't find a built-in function that does exactly what you need done? "Use the right tool for the job..." says the carpenter. In Sesame, in addition to variables, arrays, loops and subroutines, you can actually create what are called User-Defined Functions or UDFs and use these custom functions wherever needed. This month, you'll see a simple UDF that takes all the work out of combining date values with text/string values.

QuickTips

• One reader who's sold on a dual-monitor desktop tells you why and what it takes.

@Help   You Ask. We Answer

• Using Q&A data in other programs.
• Reports from multiple databases.
• Is Lesspace working?
• Q&A running slow over a network.