System and method for filtering database records

Abstract

A records filter filters database records based on general and/or specific filter criteria. The records filter is effectively utilized in the context of a mail merge process in a document editor, such as a word processor application. The records filter can be provided to a user in the form of a graphical user interface that allows the user to intuitively set and modify filters to process the database records from a database source file. The graphical user interface permits a user to implement general and specific filters to process the records of a database. Specific filters can be designed to exclude specific records from the list of database records. Specific record exclusion can be performed by enabling a user to select or de-select a checkbox associated with each database record. General database record filtration is performed by processing general filter criteria input from the user. The user can input general filter criteria by clicking on a criteria button to expose a criteria list containing all of the unique values in the column. By selecting a value in the criteria list, the user indicates that the record filter's output should include only records containing the selected value in the selected column.