Data Cleaning for VDP Mailer

[Josh]

Hi Everyone,

We're just planning a Christmas card mailer to go out to our clients... we don't generally get involved with VDP but thought we'd make use of it for our own mailer, if only so we can get some experience using it!

I'm planning to use FusionPro to put it together, however the first stumbling block I've come to is the data we've got.

Essentially I'd like to put the clients first name on the front of a greeting card i.e "Happy Christmas Dave" in a nice font, a personalised inside and then the clients address on the reverse (page4) of the card so they can be placed straight into window envelopes.

First problem:

The data we've got has been collected from a number of sources, the main one being our old web ordering system which basically gave clients a freeform box for their name... this means we've got a "Name" field in the database which contains values such as:

A Name
Andy Name
Andy
A B Name
Andy B Name

...you get the idea.

I can easily split the data apart, so for values such as Andy Name I can get "Andy" and "Name" into seperate columns so just the first name can be used in the mail out, however this leaves other ones which end up with just an initial etc.

Anyone got any advice on how to overcome this type of issue?

We have around 1500-2000 records in the database so going through it manually wouldn't be ideal!!

...oh and for anyone that's wondering our system has now changed so it's collecting first name and surname in seperate fields! This should make next year easier

[youston]

We get this all the time. We use a piece of software called "Personator" to break up the names. It does a decent job.

Personator - Maintain personalized mailing lists and combine data from different sources with this data management tool

[natty]

Why not use a rule which says that if the first name value is 1 character (or lets say 2 if there is a full stop after it) or less, you subsitute the firstName value with something generic ???

[format]

Hi Anyone know of something similar to "Personator" that will run on a Mac

[PlanetDave]

Variable Data Printing consists of more than just setting up a "mail merge." If you are going to get into the VDP business you will have to get data savvy or you will need a data processing service like mine. Good data is the key to an outstanding VDP job. There are programs you might want to look into; BCC MM2010, Personator, DataLift, Stylist, Doubletake and Dirty Harry. You have a start with fusion pro, but handling the data is sooo important! You can get me at Dave@DigitalFormattingServices.com