[NTG-context] Example of correspondence

[Mojca Miklavec]

On 3/3/06, vittorio wrote:
> I have rread the document on correspondence from ConTeXt site to no avail.
> What I need is a very small, working, complete example of a textmerge
> operation with context.
> Where can I find anything of the kind in the net?
> Thanks.
> Vittorio

You said that you did it in LaTeX. Perhaps try to explain what you did
or what you would like to do that LaTeX didn't offer you.

I suppose that solving your problem should be simple enough, but you
have to tell a bit more about it: what kind of input data you have
(from database, manually typeset?), what troubles you (for example if
you don't know how to typeset certain parts of your letter, so that it
will look nice, ...), ...

There are numerous possibilities. In contrast to Word you have a magic
keyword "\def" in TeX, which means that you can define your own
commands and do just about every trickery with it.

I don't know if I even understood you properly. Here's a very small
ugly example of how you could typeset hundreds of more-or-less equal
pages to be printed. It has no design, but you have to tell how and
what you want before people can help you further.

% start new page & supress page numbering
\setuphead[subject][page=yes]
\setuppagenumbering[location=]

% here you have to define the body of your letter
\def\TypesetALetter#1#2{%
    \subject{Dear #1,}
    You are invited to #2.
    \blank[medium]
    \midaligned{Vittorio}%
}
% define a special kind of a letter
\def\PartyInvitation#1{%
    \TypesetALetter{#1}{a party next week}
}

\starttext

\TypesetALetter{Alex}{join me on the trip on Sunday}
\TypesetALetter{sister}{a very special event next week}

\PartyInvitation{Ann}
\PartyInvitation{Betty}
\PartyInvitation{Sue}

\stoptext

For input you can also use XML, comma separated values (whatever is
more handy for you), the design, content and input data can be
completely independent ... But you have to be more precise in
specifying your requirements & problems. People on the list are really
friendly, but perhaps you asked too general question.

Mojca