Mail merging and Spellchecker

Denise Sanders

It seems that once you merge your documents, Word's spellchecker does not want to work.  We are using Word 2013 and the knowledgebase record references that Word 2010 would have this fixed. Has anyone come across a solution to this?  

Nicole S

That's interesting.  Can you link to the KB?  I had been using 2010 and I was never able to resolve.



Sorry -- no suggestions for 2013

Terry McKiel

Not sure this would work and it is cumbersome but you could copy and paste into a new Word doc after they are merged then try spellchecker.

Lynn Slussar

Check out the Knowledgebase solution BB104528



When performing a conditional mail merge in Microsoft Word, users notice the spell check feature does not work. This happens after the document is merged. 

Note: We are unable to change how the Spelling and Grammar feature works in Microsoft Word because it is related to third-party software. Contact Microsoft for assistance.

Note: We provide links to third-party websites in an effort to help you resolve your issue. We are not responsible for the information on third-party websites, and we cannot assist with implementing the resolution from these websites.





 

Denise Sanders

Yes, I saw the KBs referencing this.  I tried to find a fix on Microsoft's support area, but was unsuccessful.  It seems to me that if Blackbaud wants its product to work with MS Word, they should try to find a fix for their clients.  It's not like we can choose another software to use with Blackbaud. I did try to copy it out to another document (which I can't imagine doing for all the documents I produce!) but it only worked if I made changes to the copy.  Just not a good system at all.   

Janices Brown

It seems unfair for Blackbaud to say their product (The Raiser's Edge) integrates with Microsoft Office when there is a known issue, spell check does not work when using RE Mail Conditional Mail Merge that has been around for years and they are making no effort to resolve the problem. 



Clicking the link to take you to Microsoft provides no options to lodge a complaint with them. Most likely, their viewpoint would be that if Blackbaud wants to integrate with their product, Blackbaud need to solve the issue.  The work-arounds offered in KB Article 37948 are so cumbersome they make more work than typing the gift letters in Word instead of using RE Mail.



Just a bit frustrated!!!





 

John Heizer

The spellcheck on a merged document works exactly the same way whether you're merging from RE or from Excel or from Access or from your Aunt Martha's hand-typed list.  The problem is with Microsoft Word.  Yes, sadly, RE is also affected by it but it really has nothing to do with RE and Blackbaud has absolutely no more control over Microsoft products than Aunt Martha.  One reason turning off spellcheck is done because merged documents get HUGE and could potentially crash Word as it tries to read and check every word in the document.  In theory, if you've checked the spelling of the main document then everything in the merged document should be spelled corretly unless you're having to do tons of manual editing to individual letters.



There are instuctions here on how to turn it on (yes, you have to do it for every merged document) https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/242339  The article is for Office 2003, but it still applies to newer versions.



Yes, it's frustrating, but expecting a fix from Blackbaud for a Microsoft product is pointless.

John Heizer

Denise Sanders:

Yes, I saw the KBs referencing this.  I tried to find a fix on Microsoft's support area, but was unsuccessful.  It seems to me that if Blackbaud wants its product to work with MS Word, they should try to find a fix for their clients.  It's not like we can choose another software to use with Blackbaud. I did try to copy it out to another document (which I can't imagine doing for all the documents I produce!) but it only worked if I made changes to the copy.  Just not a good system at all.   

Actually you CAN choose other software to use with RE.  Most older versions of Microsoft Office integrate with RE (where you can do merges,etc. directly from within RE) but once you export the data (which can be done in lots of different formats) you can even use Google products to do anything you want with the data.

Jean McCoy

Terry McKiel:

Not sure this would work and it is cumbersome but you could copy and paste into a new Word doc after they are merged then try spellchecker.


I found that even if you copy and paste into your own version of WORD, the spell check still doesn't work.  I copy and "paste special - unformatted text" and spell check works then.  Hope this helps.