Mail Merge + Huge database = CV Templates, but there's a small problem

[BjoSom]

Hi! I'm new here at this forum.
I'm a Norwegian IT tech with 15 years of experience, and now I'm working at a consultant brokering company making CV templates for external companies.

We're using Mail Merge to populate these templates, and it works like a charm. However, a new client have a request that seems "impossible" to meet with Mail Merge, but I have a feeling that there is a way.

The way a Project-based CV usually is constructed, is that you list all projects like this:

-----
Project name - Customer
Date
Description
Consultant role
Applied Skills

Project name - Customer
Date
Description
Consultant role
Applied Skills

Project name - Customer
Date
Description
Consultant role
Applied Skills
--- Etc...

The new Client want something like this:
---
Current Employer
Project name - Customer
Date
Description
Consultant role
Applied Skills

Project name - Customer
Date
Description
Consultant role
Applied Skills

Project name - Customer
Date
Description
Consultant role
Applied Skills

Another employer
Project name - Customer
Date
Description
Consultant role
Applied Skills

Project name - Customer
Date
Description
Consultant role
Applied Skills
--- etc

Any thoughts on how I can get this to work with an IF-statement? Like Looping inside a loop, then continuing to next "employer" when there is a new value?
We have all the required data fields, but I can't figure out how to do this...

[macropod]

You can use Word's Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge facility for this (the terminology depends on the Word version). To see how to do so with any mailmerge data source supported by Word, check out my Microsoft Word Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge Tutorial at:
http://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-merge/38721-microsoft-word-catalogue-directory-mailmerge-tutorial.html
or:
http://www.gmayor.com/Zips/Catalogue%20Mailmerge.zip
The tutorial covers everything from list creation to the insertion & calculation of values in multi-record tables in letters. Do read the tutorial before trying to use the mailmerge document included with it.

Depending on what you're trying to achieve, the field coding for this can be complex. However, since the tutorial document includes working field codes for all of its examples, most of the hard work has already been done for you - you should be able to do little more than copy/paste the relevant field codes into your own mailmerge main document, substitute/insert your own field names and adjust the formatting to get the results you desire. For some worked examples, see the attachments to the posts at:
http://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-merge/9180-mail-merge-duplicate-names-but-different-dollar.html#post23345
http://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-merge/11436-access-word-creating-list-multiple-records.html#post30327

Another option would be to use a DATABASE field in a normal ‘letter’ mailmerge main document and a macro to drive the process. An outline of this approach can be found at: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-word/many-to-one-email-merge-using-tables/8bce1798-fbe8-41f9-a121-1996c14dca5d
Conversely, if you're using a relational database or, Excel workbook with a separate table with just a single instance of each of the grouping criteria, a DATABASE field in a normal ‘letter’ mailmerge main document could be used without the need for a macro. An outline of this approach can be found at:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_winother-mso_2010/mail-merge-to-a-word-table-on-a-single-page/4edb4654-27e0-47d2-bd5f-8642e46fa103
For a working example, see:
http://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-merge/37844-mail-merge-using-one-excel-file-multiple.html
The DATABASE field can even be used without recourse to a mailmerge. An example of such usage can be found at: http://www.msofficeforums.com/mail-merge/21847-mail-merge-into-different-coloumns.html#post67097

Alternatively, you may want to try one of the Many-to-One Mail Merge add-ins, from:
Graham Mayor at http://www.gmayor.com/ManyToOne.htm; or
Doug Robbins at https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=5AEDCB43615E886B&id=5AEDCB43615E886B!566

[BjoSom]

The tutorial solved my problem!
More specifically the chapter about Merge Records By Category.

Thanks alot for your help!