Thanks el, The article looks very promising. I see that the mailmerge package is in the texlive extras debian repositories, I have downloaded texlive extras and will give it a try. First have to remember how to make mailmerge live. I have done that kind of thing before so it should not be all that difficult.
John On Saturday, April 1, 2017 5:05:44 PM PDT Dr Eberhard Lisse wrote: > In the first instance I did a Google search, > > https://www.google.com/search?q=mail+merge+lyx > > which returns as the first hit: > > http://ftp.lyx.org/pub/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/mailmerge/ > > maybe look there... > > greetings, el > > On 2017-04-01 00:13 , Richard Heck wrote: > > On 03/31/2017 04:05 PM, John White wrote: > >> I use lyx and am using it more and more in what I call "mailmerge" > >> mode, similar to how I once used mailmerge in Wordstar. Once I have a > >> good form document (say a will or a contract) I replace the names > >> with, say "@name1" and then I replace all @name1 with the new data, > >> e.g. "Judy Jones". > >> > >> > >> > >> This works fine, but on longer documents (say a 40 page document) > >> with, say @name1 through @name12, it can get a bit confusing. I put > >> all the replacement data in a separate lyx file and go back and forth > >> to that file until I have made all replacements. > >> > >> > >> > >> I use article class. > >> > >> > >> > >> Is there perhaps a better layout or class or perhaps something else > >> lyx that I should be using? > > > > The easiest way to do this would be to use some LaTeX in your LyX > > > > document. Where you now have "@name1" put, say: > > \nameone > > > > in ERT. Now in the preamble, say, put: > > \def\nameone{Judy Jones} > > > > This is a LaTeX variable, or "macro". > > > > You could also do something like: > > \def\nameonef{Judy} > > \def\nameonel{Jones} > > \def\nameone{\nameonef \nameonel} > > > > and now you have access to first, last, and full names. > > > > You can also put all of that in some separate LyX file, if you like, but > > as ERT, and include it at the beginning of the file. > > > > Caveats: > > > > LaTeX does not allow numbers in variable names, only letters (well, > > close enough). Hence "one". > > > > You'll have to be careful to avoid naming conflicts with what LaTeX > > already predefines. One way to do this is to use names like, e.g., > > \MERGEnameone. > > > > You may run into problems with spaces after such macros. This is because > > LaTeX sees the space after the macro as just separating it from what > > follows, not as an actual space. You can handle this in a couple ways. > > > > First, in the LyX file, you can do: > > \nameone{} > > > > in ERT. Now the braces terminate the macro, and LaTeX will treat a > > following space as an actual space. The other option is to use the > > > > xspace package. So the macro gets defined as: > > \def\nameone{Judy Jones\xspace} > > > > and you put > > > > \usepackage{xspace} > > > > into the preamble. The \xspace macro adds a space, but only if what > > follows isn't punctuation, etc. It isn't perfect, but it usually works. > > > > This is a very simple approach. Try searching "latex mail merge" for > > more sophisticated ones. > > > > Richard
