grherman

Q: pages

I have used Pages '09 v. 4.3 to mail merge to business clients from selected contact lists.  Since I downloaded El Capitan and received the updated Pages, I can no longer mail merge with Pages '09.  Is there anything I can do asap since I have a letter that must go out immediately.

Posted on Oct 6, 2016 6:53 AM

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Q: pages

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  • by VikingOSX,Helpful

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Oct 6, 2016 8:40 AM in response to grherman
    Level 7 (21,438 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 6, 2016 8:40 AM in response to grherman

    When you attempt to use Pages '09 v4.3, ensure that it is the only version of Pages that is running. All releases of Pages v5 do not natively support Mail/Contact/Data merge. On a Mac with both Pages versions installed, Pages v5.6.2 will be the default launching Pages application, unless Pages '09 v4.3 is already running.

     

    Any Pages '09 document that has features unsupported in Pages v5.6.2, and that you allow to be converted into Pages v5 document format, will lose those unsupported features (e.g. merge fields). Exporting that document back to Pages '09 format will not restore the lost functionality.

     

    Personally, I do not use Pages '09 v4.3 for any form of Merge activity, but I thought that some of the Merge panels, when I was testing, looked different, or were incomplete after upgrading to El Capitan.

     

    There is a Pages for Mac Support Community.

     

    You might be better served having the hosts move this post into that community.

  • by grherman,

    grherman grherman Oct 6, 2016 8:43 AM in response to VikingOSX
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 6, 2016 8:43 AM in response to VikingOSX

    Thanks for your fast reply.  As you suggested, I have not converted any documents to the upgraded Pages.  However, I still can't get the mail merge to function after I installed El Capitan.  Still looking for any solution or special tricks to get my documents merged with my client lists.

  • by VikingOSX,Helpful

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Oct 6, 2016 12:05 PM in response to grherman
    Level 7 (21,438 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 6, 2016 12:05 PM in response to grherman

    There will be no further bug fixes from Apple, or magic incantations for features of Pages '09 v4.3 that no longer work on Mavericks through macOS Sierra. The Contacts application has likely changed too since Pages '09 v4.3 update was released in Dec 2012.

     

    You may have to recreate that business document from scratch with Pages '09 sender/merge fields. I would also recommend reviewing the Pages '09 User Guide PDF (The Help menu will link you to its location for download) starting from page 246 which introduces Chapter 11 (Personalizing Documents with Address Book and Numbers Data).