Enhancements to Zoho Writer’s mail merge, part 4: Circular references in formulas, flexible sharing permissions, and increased daily limits for merge operations

Hey writers!

Welcome to part 4 of our series on new features in Zoho Writer's merge templates.

The first, second, and third parts of the series highlighted advanced features such as post-merge workflows, new formulas, enhanced group by and aggregate functions, and new data sources.

Next, we'll explore circular reference handling and granular sharing permissions.

Circular references in formulas

A circular reference happens when a formula depends on its own value directly or through other cells—leading to an endless loop. These can occur by mistake. However, intentional circular reference can also be useful. The example below shows a circular reference that helps a business make a contribution to charity based on its expected profit after all expenses (including the charitable donation). Zoho Writer can identify and handle both unintentional and deliberate circular references effectively.

Refer to our user guide to learn how circular references work in Writer's formulas.
 

Flexible sharing permissions for generated documents  

Sharing merged documents has now become more secure. Flexible sharing options allow you to control access, making collaboration smoother and more secure.

Let’s say you’re a legal consultant sending contract drafts to clients. You can share the document with View & Comment permissions to let them highlight changes, ensuring faster reviews and minimal back-and-forth. For finalized contracts, you can switch to View Only to secure the content.

The new Send as Link option gives you complete control over document access and minimizes the hassle of handling large email attachments.

You can now customize sharing permissions to suit your needs:

• View Only: Ideal for sharing finalized reports or newsletters.

• View & Comment: Perfect for gathering feedback or conducting reviews.

• Read/Write: Enables full collaboration for teams working on live documents.
   

Increased daily mail merge limits  

We've got good news for businesses running large-scale document generation,such as sending out personalized invoices, promotional emails, or client reports. We’ve increased the daily mail merge limit for all Writer Add-ons paid users from 1,000 to 3,000 operations!

For API-based operations like Synchronous Merge and Merge & Download, the daily limit remains 1,000. However, if your business needs exceed this limit, you can submit a request via our form to extend the API limits beyond 1,000.

Try out these enhancements and let us know in the comments how these updates help streamline your workflows!

Have questions or feedback? Feel free to write to us at support@zohowriter.com or support@eu.zohowriter.com.

Happy automating!