An Idea for Registration
Many Packs do something like this. If you're not one of them, you might try it.
Has this ever happened to you?
Adult at PWD Registration Desk: Hi, Son, what's your name?As organizers, we put a stop to this last year by making an ID card for every Scout in our Pack, which numbered about 100 Scouts. We did it using Microsoft Word Mail Merge.
Scout: Huh?
Adult: What's your name?
Scout: Mmmmph.
Adult: I'm sorry, could you repeat that?
Scout: Mmikph.
Adult: Once more, a little louder?
Scout: MIKE!
Adult: Ouch, not that loud! Hi, Mike. And what's your last name?
Scout: Huh?
Adult: What's your last name, Mike?
Scout: Mmmphfll.
Adult: I'm sorry, a little louder again, please.
Scout: MITCHELL!
Adult: Ouch......whew! Okay, and who's your Den Leader, Mike?
Scout: Huh?
Adult: Who's your Den Leader?
Scout: Mmphr Zxgstyhjker.
Adult: Hmmmm.....never mind that! What Den are you in, Mike?
Scout: Huh?
Adult: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!Yeah, it was a little bit of pain the first time through. First, you have to figure out how to get the Mail Merge to work the way you want it to. Second, you have to enter all the data into the data source document.
But now, we have a nice template for our ID cards. From now on, all we have to do is tweak the "main document" to suit our desires, and update the data in the "data source document".
Here are documents similar to the ones we'll use this year. They are in Word 6.0/95 format. Save them both to your computer, since neither document is useful without the other.
The "Main" document
The "Data Source" documentThe cards created by these two documents look something like this:
We print the cards on thick, colored paper, four to a sheet, then cut them with a paper cutter. On Race Day, we simply put the cards on a table at the entry to the meeting hall. Each Scout finds his card, and brings it to the registration desk!
If you open the "Data Source" document above by itself, you'll see that it is simply a table with column headings. These headings match the Merge Field names in the "Main" document.
This fact has important implications! If you already store the information for your Pack in an MS Excel spreadsheet or an MS Access data base (and probably other software formats, as well) then you can import that information directly into your data source document without having to do the data entry again.
You do this by simply cutting and pasting the data from its current storage location into the data source document. For Excel, the column headings in your spreadsheet will match the merge fields names in your main document. For Access, the field names in your table (or query) will match the merge field names.
Last updated on December 13, 2006, 12:00 PM
Copyright 1999-2006 © by Cory Young. All rights reserved.
