Using Print Merge in CorelDRAW 8 and 9

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Using Print Merge in CorelDRAW 8 and 9

Note: The article below is an excerpt from the Anzai! step-by-step CorelDRAW 5/6/7 Advanced training manuals. Visit http://www.anzai.com for more information regarding other topics that are covered in the Corel-approved manuals. This article assumes you are using either DRAW 8 or 9.

What is Print Merge?

I won't be surprised if you've never heard of print merge before. And if you had seen or used the command in DRAW version 5, 6, or 7, I bet that you thought it no longer exists in versions 8 and 9. Right?! To be honest, we used to include an exercise on print merge in our DRAW 5, 6, and 7 Advanced manuals but we took it out of our newer 8 and 9 manuals because we didn't see it in the menu either. We figured it had vanished along with the ability to Extract and Merge Back text files (hands up if you remember these commands back in DRAW 3!).

Before we tell you how to get the Print Merge command back (hidden in the same area as Extract and Merge Back) in your menu, let's first explain what it is. With print merge, DRAW can automatically merge a drawing with information in a text file and send the result to a printer. Print merge is ideal for creating personalized greeting cards, certificates, or similar documents in which text changes from one copy of the document to the next. Each time the DRAW file is printed, words from the text file are substituted in the printed version.

We at Anzai! Inc. have used this feature when we want to "gang" print course certificates. First, we create a list of student names and the course title in a .TXT file and then print merge it to a certificate created in DRAW. Et Viola! Out comes a personalized certificate for each student, one by one. (If you share your printer with co-workers, it's best to wait until non-peak times such as at lunch or after-hours to print merge numerous documents!)

Figure 1 The text to be replaced by the merge file is circled in red in the certificate.

Huh, Where Is It?!

In DRAW versions 5, 6, and 7, there used to be a Print Merge command in the File menu by default. Starting in DRAW 8 and 9, you have to customize the command back in order to use it. Follow along and let's get it back home to the File menu:

Select Tools, Options.
Click the + sign beside Customize in the category list and click Menus. A list of menu commands appears in the middle area of the dialog box.
Click the + sign beside File & Layout and then click the + sign beside File.
Scroll down the list of commands and click Print &Merge…
Click the Add button followed by Down repeatedly to place the command above the &Print command. This determines the placement of the Print Merge command within the File menu. You may change the location of this command as desired later.

Figure 2 Here's where to go to add the Print Merge command back to the File menu.

Click Close to exit the Options dialog box.
Test it out by selecting File. You should now see the Print Merge command. Don't be concerned if the command is grayed out. There has to be Artistic text on the page in order for the command to be activated. More on this coming up.

And Now the Rules

Making print merge work requires that you follow strict guidelines. If it is not correctly set up, you will get an error message when you attempt to print merge. The following rules exist if you print merge:

Only Artistic text (not Paragraph text) in the drawing can be merged.
Merged text will maintain any formatting and transformations applied to the original text except for blends, extrudes, fit to path, or individual character attributes.
The text in the drawing must be identical to the corresponding text in the .TXT file. This includes capital letters, spaces, line breaks, and blank lines, wherever they occur.
The merge file must be saved as a DOS ASCII or Windows ANSI .TXT file.

Note: Remember to allow enough space for the substitute text. For instance, "Name" doesn't take up much room, but, when "Thomas Edward Anzai" is substituted, more space is required. The substituted text takes on the same attributes (typeface, point size, and spacing) and alignment (left, right, center) as the original text. In other words, the placement of the substituted text may cause the text lines in the document to be shifted or placed off the page.

Preparing the Merge File

To prepare the merge file, you will need to create a new document in your word processor or text editor. Your first entry is the number of strings of Artistic text in the drawing you want replaced.

Note: A common mistake is for users to enter the number of printouts required instead of the number of Artistic text strings to be replaced in the drawing. Now that I've pointed this out, you won't make this mistake, right?!

Your second and subsequent lines contain the text exactly as it appears in the drawing, with a backslash (\) before and after each string. Each string can be typed back to back (e.g., \Name\Company\Address\) as follows:

\Name\
\Company\
\Address\

Or, each string on one complete line as follows:

\Name\\Company\\Address\

Figure 3 You can either enter each string on a separate line, or…

Figure 4 You could enter in a linear method as illustrated. The choice is yours.

When you are finished, save the file as an ASCII or ANSI .TXT format and close the document.

Note: Depending on the application you are using to create the .TXT merge file, you must close it before attempting to Print Merge.

To merge the text file with the drawing, open the drawing you want to merge the text with and select File, Print Merge. Select the text file and click OK. Choose desired print options, if any. CorelDRAW merges the text with the drawing and sends the pages to the printer.

Ah, the Trouble with Shooting

When this feature works, it's grand. If it doesn't, make sure you have done the following:

Make sure you close the merge .TXT file before selecting the Print Merge command.
Save only as a DOS ASCII or Windows ANSI .TXT file. Word processed formats (e.g., Microsoft Word, WordPerfect) will not work.
Make sure the merge text file is case sensitive. Type the text exactly the way it is typed in the DRAW document.
If you're using DRAW 8 and the fonts and style are changing to the default settings, make sure you update to the latest DRAW 8 maintenance release.
If you're using DRAW 9 and certain characters are being dropped, make sure you update to at least the 9.397 maintenance release (August 9/1999, 13Mb).
If you attempt to print while in Print Preview, only the first page is printed. Make sure you print from the Print dialog box.
If you want to merge several labels or cards on a single page (e.g., business cards, 4-up), make sure each text string to be replaced is unique. For example, "Name1", "Job1", "Phnumber1", and "Name2", "Job2", "Phnumber2", and so on. Print merge does not support any of the multiple impositions in the Print dialog box. You must actually have the multiple labels or cards drawn on the page.

Step-by-Step Exercise

Follow along and let's use Print Merge to print certificates for a group of students. We'll take some shortcuts along the way and focus on what's required to get it to work. And don't worry, we'll do a print preview to check the results instead of tying up your printer and wasting trees…

Create a letter, landscape document.
Use the Text tool and click at the top center area of the page.
Type Student.
Click in the middle of the page and type Course.
Click at the bottom center of the page and type Date.
Format the Artistic text as center alignment. Then, choose a font, size, style, and color. Remember that the substitute text will typically be longer than the original text.
Double-click the Rectangle tool to make a page-sized background. Apply a color as desired.

Note: Here's where we could get really carried away with adding other design components, but let's focus on the print merge basics.

Save the document as My certif.
Click on the Windows Start button. Then, select Programs, Accessories, Notepad. We will use the Windows Notepad text editor program to create the merge text file.

Note: Instead, you could also use your word processor to create the merge file as long as you remember to save it as a .TXT file.

Type the following:

Note: To make it easier to distinguish the file components, I've included hard returns between each section of text. However, you can elect not to include the space between each section. You will still be able to perform a Print Merge.

Figure 5: Type the following into Windows Notepad. Pay particular attention to the case and location of the back slashes ("\").

Save the file as My merge file to any folder on your system. Remember the location for the upcoming step.
Exit Notepad.
In CorelDRAW, select File, Print Merge.
Locate the My merge file and double click it. If prompted, click Yes to adjust the printer automatically. The Print dialog box appears.
Click Print Preview and observe the print preview. You will only be able to view the first page.

Tip: Always verify the Print Preview before printing the entire print merge result. This way, you can check the layout and positioning of the text before you commit to the printing of every document.

Figure 6: If your print merge worked, this is what you'll see in Print Preview. The first certificate for Shermy Magoo.

Click Close to exit the Print Preview.
Do one of the following:

To print all the certificates as per the information entered in the merge .TXT file, click Print.
To abort the print merge, click Cancel to exit the Print dialog box.

There, that's it! If you printed the certificates, you would print one for each student along with the corresponding course and date as defined in the merge .TXT file.

Section Questionnaire

Gawd, they're at it again. If you've used Anzai! training materials in the past, then it's no surprise that we will suggest you do a review before you leave (ahhh, you must snatch the pebble from my hand, grasshopper). Relax, this will be over in no time. Below is a series of questions to review what you should have learned. Ready?

A. You can print merge both Artistic and Paragraph text. True or False?

B. The merge text file has to be saved in ASCII or ANSI format. True or False?

C. What is the first entry you enter in a merge text file?

D. The text you enter in the merge file is not case-sensitive. That is, it doesn't matter if you enter "name", "Name", or "NAME" as the primary text. True or False?

E. Primary text is entered within forward slashes (/). True or False?

F. I could really benefit from Print Merge. True or False?

Answers

A. False. Only Artistic text.

B. True.

C. The number of text strings to be replaced in the DRAW document.

D. False. Primary text entries must match the case in the DRAW document.

E. False. Primary text is entered within backslashes (\).

F. It better be True if you got this far in the article ;)

Get Yer Bonus Tickets Here!

While in attendance at CorelWorld '99 in Orlando, Florida, I spoke with colleague Steve Rindsberg of Rindsberg Digital Photography. He mentioned that he wrote a DRAW script to generate ticket-style numbers (i.e., sequences with leading/trailing text or variable number of leading zeros). You can either run the .EXE program or run the script within DRAW 8 or 9. The result is a merge .TXT file with a consecutive sequence of numbers that replace "NUMBER" in the CDR document. Running the program or script will save you a ton o' time from manually entering the data.

It's a free download compliments of Steve Rindsberg. Visit RDP Slides to check out the DrawMerge utility.

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Tom Anzai's Step-By-Step Tutorials

Creating Multi-Page Text Documents in CorelDRAW · Using Corel PHOTO-PAINT's Histogram, BCI, and Tone Curve · Tom's Terrific Tips For CorelDRAW 8, 9, 10 · Saving Defaults in CorelDRAW 6/7/8/9 · Using Print Merge in CorelDRAW 8 & 9 · Understanding the Basics of Fills and Outlines · Mastering Layers in CorelDRAW 8 and 9

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_{Last Updated Saturday April 07 2007.}

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