Introducing group by, aggregation, and repeating regions in mail merge templates

Display data exactly the way you want and highlight key insights with Zoho Writer's enhanced merge templates.

We've supercharged Zoho Writer's merge templates with the capability to dynamically group, aggregate, and repeat data as blocks. You can now fetch data from any data source, including Zoho CRM, Bigin, and Creator, and present them in an easily understandable form in just a few clicks.

Here's how you can enhance data presentation using group by, aggregation, repeating regions, and data transformation.

Let's understand these new capabilities and how to use them in detail. To make this easier, let's take a look at how Zylker Automobiles, an imaginary car manufacturer, uses the new group and loop options to easily present their data in different ways.

1. Visualize data with group by for easy and quick understanding.

Business case: Generate a master pricelist with the state-wise price of all car models.

Zylker Automobiles' sales admin uses group by and repeating regions to display the price list for all car models separately for each state whenever the prices of their cars are changed.

Group by helps you to group data based on a specific field or value. With repeating regions, you can configure the layout/table/row only once and dynamically expand it based on the volume of data, instead of manually expanding it. Click here for the detailed steps to use the group by function.

Watch this video to learn how to use the group by, aggregation, and data transformation capabilities in your mail merge templates.

2. Summarize data to highlight key aspects and insights.

Business case: Generate the monthly revenue report with country-wide and region-specific revenue summaries and breakdowns.

You can use the aggregation functions to summarize a large chunk of data to glean important insights like maximum, minimum, count, average, and sum.

Zylker Automobiles' sales admin combines the power of the built-in group by, aggregation, and repeating regions to highlight the:

• Total revenue generated in a month.
  
• State-wise total revenue with a breakdown of revenue from each category.
  
• Granular, item-wise breakdown of revenue for each category for every state.
  

Click here to learn how to use the aggregation functions.

3. Transform data to create and populate sub-forms.

Business case: Generate and save the detailed revenue report of each state as a separate file in a specific folder.

Zylker Automobiles uses data transformation to map the desired fields in the data source as main and sub-form fields. This allows them to extract and process the raw, unordered transactional data to generate the revenue report for each state separately. Click here to know how to use the Transform Data Source option.

4. Format data with the new number-formatting options.

Business case: Send an email to each SDR at the beginning of every month with their total revenue from the previous month in words, along with a summary of their performance.

​

Zoho Writer has added new formatting options exclusively for numbers. With these, you can now convert a number to text, ordinal number, ordinal text, and ordinal year.

The Zylker Automobiles sales admin uses the new Number to Text formatting option to convert and display numbers as texts in email that they send to their SDR every month.

Try the group by and aggregation functions in Writer's mail merge templates, and let us know your feedback. You can also watch this video to understand how to use these features to elevate your documents.

If you need any assistance or have any questions in configuring the group by, aggregation, or data transformation operations, please write to us at support@zohowriter.com or add a comment below.

Happy merging and data visualizing!

• Topic Participants

• Varadarajan AR

  

• Marcus Longone

• Sticky Posts

• Zoho Writer's WordPress extensions

  Hey Zoho Writer users! Say goodbye to all your WordPress content publishing woes with Zoho Writer's WordPress extensions. Publish content with all your formatting and images, republish content when you update a document, and more—from a single window

• Easily perform calculations using dates with the new DATEDIF function

  Hey Zoho Writer users! We've enhanced Zoho Writer's formula capabilities with the new DATEDIF function. This allows you to calculate the difference between dates in days, months, and years. Function syntax: =DATEDIF(start_date, end_date, unit) Inputs:

• Date-based conditions and filters

  Configure conditions with date  Hi everyone! We are excited to announce that you can now compare and filter data with date-based conditions. This update lets you compare date fields in a document to a reference date and display a text or value if the

• Introducing group by, aggregation, and repeating regions in mail merge templates

  Display data exactly the way you want and highlight key insights with Zoho Writer's enhanced merge templates. We've supercharged Zoho Writer's merge templates with the capability to dynamically group, aggregate, and repeat data as blocks. You can now

• Say hello to an improved way to merge documents!

  Automating all your documents from start to finish is now easier than ever with Writer's new merge tools.   If you haven't seen it yet, you can read the main announcement here. Here is the full list of the features we've rolled out: 1. Dynamic Table Headers

• Recent Topics

• Widget shows error

  Hi， May I ask why below characters will be auto added into the widget link and how to solve this error? As my widget shows 404 error now. ?serviceOrigin=https%3A%2F%2Fcrm.zoho.com&frameorigin=https%3A%2F%2Fcrm.zoho.com

• "Spreadsheet Mode" for Fast Bulk Edits

  One of the challenges with using Zoho Inventory is when bulk edits need to be done via the UI, and each value that needs to be changed is different. A very common use case here is price changes. Often, a price increase will need to be implemented, and

• Dropshipping Address - Does Not Show on Invoice Correctly

  When a dropshipping address is used for a customer, the correct ship-to address does not seem to show on the Invoice. It shows correctly on the Sales Order, Shipment Order, and Package, just not the Invoice. This is a problem, because the company being

• Different Company Name for billing & shipping address

  We are using Zoho Books & Inventory for our Logistics and started to realize soon, that Zoho is not offering a dedicated field for a shipping address company name .. when we are creating carrier shipping labels, the Billing Address company name gets always

• What's New in Zoho Inventory | Q2 2025

  Hello Customers, The second quarter have been exciting months for Zoho Inventory! We’ve introduced impactful new features and enhancements to help you manage inventory operations with even greater precision and control. While we have many more exciting

• Make Packages from multiple sales order of a single customer

  Our customers sends orders to us very frequently, some times what customer wants is to ship items from 5 to 6 sales orders in a single shipment. it will be very nice if, zoho can implement this function, in which we can select items from other sales orders of the customer.

• Update CRM Price Books to include volume discounts as per Zoho Books/Inventory

  Once again, Zoho has 3 great products that all store information in different ways (which is not helpful when you attempt to integrate the 3 products - one of the best features of Zoho). Zoho CRM Price Books are basic at best. Zoho Books/Inventory Price

• Print a price list or price book

  Hi Community. Am I right in concluding that Zoho has no functionality to print a price list from either Zoho CRM, Zoho Inventory or Zoho Books? I won't get stuck on the fact that Zoho doesn't sync price books between Zoho CRM and Books/Inventory (more

• Start Workflow from Deluge Script

  I have developed a customized process from our CRM that leverages a deluge script to create a statement of work document. Once the document has been created via the merge and store function, I would like the ability to start a workdrive review & approve

• Add System Pre-Defined Lookup Field to Subform?

  Hi there! New to using Zoho, so this may already exist, but I'm having trouble figuring it out. Is there a way to get the system pre-defined Account Lookup field (in our case, renamed to Company Name), as the starting point for a subform? In our company,

• Global lists for Multi select

  It would be great if I could select a global list to use for a multi select dropdown filed.

• Pageless mode needed to modernise Writer

  When we switched from GSuite to Zoho, one of the easiest apps I found to give up, was Docs. In many ways, Writer has always been more powerful than Docs, especially in terms of workflows/fillable forms/etc. However, I went back into Docs because I notice

• Show Custom Button in Portal Listview Canvas

  I have created a custom button that shows in a list view of deals (internally I can see it). I have permissions to allow this button on the portal. But it is not displaying in the canvas list? Before I do too much leg work, is this function allowed?

• Zoho Survey Enhancements

  We love Survey. We use it a ton. It needs some enhancements. Maybe some of these are already on the roadmap? API - this is crucial. We have some complex surveys that take place and need to update records, trigger other functions/automations, etc. I would

• Work Order Assignment for Engineers Handling Their Own Requests

  I’m setting up FSM for a business where there are multiple engineers, but each engineer handles their own process end-to-end receiving the service request, creating the work order, and completing the field service job. I noticed that I must create an

• Zoho Sites "pages" management page

  I have 80 plus pages on zoho sites. When I go to the "pages" link to view and edit pages, They are not in any kind of order, so I spend lots of time searching for pages when I need to edit or create new. How can I change the view order of all my pages

• AI feature in Zoho Desk suggesting answers based on past ticket threads

  Hi I would like to suggest something that would be very useful : instead of suggesting answers based on the Knowledge Base, I think it would be great if Zia could analyze the history of all customer and agents threads, to suggest answers in new tickets.

• Advanced Customization of the Help Center using JavaScript

  Hello everyone, The Help Center in Zoho Desk can be customized by using HTML and CSS to provide structure and enhance the page's appearance—but what if you want to add interactive and dynamic elements? You can add these effects with JavaScript, a programming

• Using a CRM Client Script Button to create a Books Invoice

  Hello, I need help handling error messages returned to my client script from a function. The scenario I have setup a client script button which is available from each Deal. This CS executes a crm function, which in turn creates an invoice based on the

• Using IMAP configuration for shared email inboxes

  Our customer service team utilizes shared email boxes to allow multiple people to view and handle incoming customer requests. For example, the customer sends an email to info@xxxx.com and multiple people can view it and handle the request. How can I configure

• Synchronise item image between Zoho Commerce and Zoho Books/Inventory/CRM

  Here is a blindingly simple idea to tie several Zoho products together. Zoho - please include a method to synchronise the item image (or images) from one Zoho application to another. For example, if you upload an item image in Zoho Inventory, a user should

• Introducing Zoho POS for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

  Hey everyone, We are excited to kick-start December with a completely personalized edition of POS for retail businesses in Saudi Arabia to help run your operations with ease. It offers four different subscription plans—Free, Standard, Professional, and

• Whatsapp Connection Status still "Pending" after migration

  Hello, I migrated my WhatsApp API to Zoho from another provider a day ago. So far the connection status is still “Pending”. There is a problem? How long does it usually take?

• Unveiling Zoho Sites 2.0 - A new dimension in website building

  Dear Zoho Sites Users, We are thrilled to announce the launch of Zoho Sites 2.0 today! This refresh represents a significant step forward in the capabilities of Zoho Sites and is crucial for creating a lasting and positive impact on our customers' businesses.

• Subform edits don't appear in parent record timeline?

  Is it possible to have subform edits (like add row/delete row) appear in the Timeline for parent records? A user can edit a record, only edit the subform, and it doesn't appear in the timeline. Is there a workaround or way that we can show when a user

• Script Editor not an option

  I am trying to apply a script to a sheet and Script Editor is not an option. I don't want to go outside Sheets to do this (like Creator) if it can be done inside Sheets.

• Zoho CRM - Writing Assistant Tone

  Hi Zoho CRM Team, Text in my emails often gets underlined in yellow because I tend to use a more informal tone with my client's, like using "I'm" instead of "I am". Is there some way for me to tell the system that this is my preferred writing tone, so

• Not able to link email text.

  Kindly check Zoho Sites. I am unable to turn a text into a email link. The save button does not work. Kindly try yourself to see it not responding to save.

• Adding Multiple Files to a Zoho Vault Entry

  There is a old blog post talking about adding multiple file attachments to one Zoho Vault Secret: https://www.zoho.com/blog/vault/introducing-new-features-in-zoho-vault-powerful-password-sharing-wider-storing.html Is that still possible, I can see how

• Migrate data from old to new account

  Hy, Have one Old Zoho Notebook Account with Data , want to migrate that whole Data to New Zoho Notebook Account which is in Zoho One . Is that possible ? If Yes then how?

• Option to Customize Career Site URL Without “/jobs/Careers”

  Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you are doing well. We would like to request an enhancement to the Career Site URL structure in Zoho Recruit. In the old version of the career site, our URL was simply: 👉 https://jobs.domain.com However, after moving to

• Zoho Analytics Regex Support

  When can we expect full regex support in Zoho Analytics SQL such as REGEXP_REPLACE? Sometimes I need to clean the data and using regex functions is the easiest way to achieve this.

• Automating Employee Birthday Notifications in Zoho Cliq

  Have you ever missed a birthday and felt like the office Grinch? Fear not, the Cliq Developer Platform has got your back! With Zoho Cliq's Schedulers, you can be the office party-cipant who never forgets a single cake, balloon, or awkward rendition of

• RTL Support for Webforms in Zoho CRM

  Dear Zoho CRM Support Team, We are writing to request an enhancement to the webform builder functionality within Zoho CRM. Currently, to create a webform in a right-to-left (RTL) language, the entire CRM instance must be set to RTL, which can be inconvenient

• Zoho Projects - Visual improvement to parent and sub-task relationship

  Hi Projects Team, My feature request is to improve sub-task visibility. Please see screenshot below. I really think parent child relationships could be visually improved. Even if the first letter of the parent task was inline with other same level tasks

• Add Custom Reports To Dashboard or Home Tab

  Hi there, I think it would be great to be able to add our custom reports to the Home Tab or Dashboards. Thanks! Chad

• MCP > Creator connection failing with Claude

  I'm trying to get claude to access any of my Zoho Creator apps and it keeps failing. I have enabled all tools for creator and ensured in claude settings that everything is authorised. Here is what claude says : Unfortunately, the error messages I'm receiving

• Pricing Strategies: #1 Nuances in Pricing

  When Clara first opened her digital printing shop, pricing was simple. She sold handmade greeting cards, planners, business cards, and other physical items at fixed label prices, individually and in bulk. One SKU, one price, one bill, and that's all it

• [Free Webinar] Learning Table Series – Education Management in Zoho Creator

  Hello Everyone! We’re excited to invite you to another edition of Learning Table Series, where we showcase how Zoho Creator empowers industries with innovative and automated solutions. About the Learning Table Series The Learning Table Series is a free,

• Channel Configuration and Default Channels

  There are some of the default fields that cannot be removed or changed. Examples are the social media ones, such as Facebook. It would be nice to be able to remove these fields as it would be confusing if someone selected this but it's not configure

• Next Page