Sequential merges

In complex tasks you might want to perform sequential merges in a presentation. Usually the first merges will be combined merges while the last one can be a multiple merge. The most common scenario is that you want to create several slides using one or more template slides and variable data and then further customize the resulting presentation for different recipients.

Our blog will host some examples of these sequential merges. You might find it useful to refer to these examples:

blog.momsoftco.com

To permit sequential merges, PowerMerge will not modify fields (either text fields or image fields) that are not present in the associated data sheet. That way, these fields can be used in the following merge.

For example assume that you want to create a presentation containing your products. You could use the following fields: [Product name], [Product description] and [Product Family].

Then, you may want to create a customized presentation for your clients, but you only want to include products from product families in which the client is interested. To do so you could a [Client] field and conditional fields to filter products (please see the Conditional fields to filter slides example).

You create a master presentation with all the required fields and then merge it with your list of products. On that merge, the client and conditional fields are not modified and can be used in the next merge, with your client list.