On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 17:49:57 -0700, Alan Estes <alan.estes@PRECISIONDIRECTANALYTICS.COM> wrote:

>We're trying to create a production-level form letter. The data >originate from a SAS dataset. Is there an easy way to generate the >letter with SAS? > >Maybe I'm just lazy, but presently, I write the variable data into an >Excel spreadsheet and have a Word template that conducts a mail merge >using the data from the spreadsheet...it's a fairly manual process. >I'd rather have this entire process encapsulated within SAS if >possible. We have about 80 letters per day to customize and print. > >Things I've tried: > >1. PROC FSLETTER....don't license that module. > >2. DDE to MS Word....can't get a record's worth of data to print the >letter out, then move to the next record and print that letter out, >etc, etc. > >Any assistance would be much appreciated. > >Thanks, >--Alan Estes > > aestes@K2Financial.com > K2 Financial, LLC

Hi,

I'd keep playing with DDE. Suggest you read Viergever and Vyverman's excellent paper "Fancy MS Word Reports Made Easy: Harnessing the Power of Dynamic Data Exchange". It includes an example of DDE-powered mail merge.

http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi28/016-28.pdf

Best of luck, --Quentin