Google-sheets – Can you specify qualifier and delimiter characters when exporting from Google Spreadsheet

You will need to write a Google Apps Script for that. You could let the first row of the spreadsheet be field names, and create a template document where the fields are referenced like [FIELD].

So if your spreadsheet looks like:

NAME  |  STREET             | ZIP    | TOWN
---------------------------------------------
Vidar | Karl Johans gate 15 | 0200   | Oslo
John  | 3021 Arlington Road | 123456 | Memphis, TN

... you could have a template document like

Dear [NAME], living at [STREET], [TOWN] [ZIP] ...

Your script will need to create a new, empty document, and for each row in your spreadsheet, add a new page and search/replace the field placeholders with row values.

I have a somewhat working version, which might need some polishing. It can be invoked here. It will create a new document named Result of mail merge.

You could use it as a starting point for your own script. Let me know if you're into that, or I can spend some more time finishing the script.

Script content:

var selectedTemplateId = null;
var selectedSpreadsheetId = null;
var spreadsheetDocPicker = null;
var templateDocPicker = null;

function mailMerge(app) {
  var app = UiApp.createApplication().setTitle("Mail Merge");
  templateDocPicker = createFilePicker(app, "Choose template", 
         UiApp.FileType.DOCUMENTS, "templateSelectionHandler"); 
  templateDocPicker.showDocsPicker();
  return app;
};

function createFilePicker(app, title, fileType, selectionHandlerName) {
  Logger.log("Creating file picker for " + fileType);
  var docPicker = app.createDocsListDialog();
  docPicker.setDialogTitle(title);
  docPicker.setInitialView(fileType);
  var selectionHandler = app.createServerHandler(selectionHandlerName);
  docPicker.addSelectionHandler(selectionHandler);
  return docPicker;
}

function templateSelectionHandler(e) {
  var app = UiApp.getActiveApplication();
  selectedTemplateId = e.parameter.items[0].id;
  UserProperties.setProperty("templateId", e.parameter.items[0].id);
  Logger.log("Selected template: " + selectedTemplateId);
  var spreadsheetDocPicker = createFilePicker(app, "Choose spreadsheet", 
        UiApp.FileType.SPREADSHEETS, "spreadsheetSelectionHandler");
  spreadsheetDocPicker.showDocsPicker();
  return app;
}

function spreadsheetSelectionHandler(e) {
  var app = UiApp.getActiveApplication();
  UserProperties.setProperty("spreadsheetId", e.parameter.items[0].id);
  selectedSpreadsheetId = e.parameter.items[0].id;
  Logger.log("Selected spreadsheet: " + selectedSpreadsheetId);
  doMerge();
  return app;
}

function doMerge() {
  var selectedSpreadsheetId = UserProperties.getProperty("spreadsheetId");
  var selectedTemplateId = UserProperties.getProperty("templateId");
  Logger.log("Selected spreadsheet: " + selectedSpreadsheetId);
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.openById(selectedSpreadsheetId);
  Logger.log("Spreadsheet opened");
  Logger.log("Opening template: " + selectedTemplateId);
  var template = DocumentApp.openById(selectedTemplateId);
  Logger.log("Template opened");
  var templateFile = DocsList.getFileById(selectedTemplateId);
  var templateDoc = DocumentApp.openById(templateFile.getId());
  //var mergedFile = templateFile.makeCopy();
  var mergedDoc = DocumentApp.create("Result of mail merge");
  var bodyCopy = templateDoc.getActiveSection().copy();
  Logger.log("Copy made");
  var rows = sheet.getDataRange();
  var numRows = rows.getNumRows();
  var values = rows.getValues();
  var fieldNames = values[0];

  for (var i = 1; i < numRows; i++) {
    var row = values[i];
    Logger.log("Processing row " + i + " " + row);
    var body = bodyCopy.copy();
    for (var f = 0; f < fieldNames.length; f++) {
      Logger.log("Processing field " + f + " " + fieldNames[f]);
      Logger.log("Replacing [" + fieldNames[f] + "] with " + row[f]);
      body.replaceText("\\[" + fieldNames[f] + "\\]", row[f]);
    }
    var numChildren = body.getNumChildren();
    for (var c = 0; c < numChildren; c++) {
      var child = body.getChild(c);
      child = child.copy();
      if (child.getType() == DocumentApp.ElementType.HORIZONTALRULE) {
        mergedDoc.appendHorizontalRule(child);
      } else if (child.getType() == DocumentApp.ElementType.INLINEIMAGE) {
        mergedDoc.appendImage(child);
      } else if (child.getType() == DocumentApp.ElementType.PARAGRAPH) {
        mergedDoc.appendParagraph(child);
      } else if (child.getType() == DocumentApp.ElementType.LISTITEM) {
        mergedDoc.appendListItem(child);
      } else if (child.getType() == DocumentApp.ElementType.TABLE) {
        mergedDoc.appendTable(child);
      } else {
        Logger.log("Unknown element type: " + child);
      }
   }
   Logger.log("Appending page break");
   mergedDoc.appendPageBreak();
   Logger.log("Result is now " + mergedDoc.getActiveSection().getText());
  }
}

function testMerge() {
  UserProperties.setProperty("templateId", 
    "1pAXWE0uklZ8z-O_Tejuv3pWSTiSv583ptUTGPt2Knm8");
  UserProperties.setProperty("spreadsheetId", 
    "0Avea1NXBTibYdFo5QkZzWWlMYUhkclNSaFpRWUZOTUE");
  doMerge();
}


function doGet() {
  return mailMerge();
}

Drop this formula in the first cell of your google spreadsheet:

=importData("http://example.com/activities.csv")

And it will automatically fill out the rest of the current spreadsheet with as many columns and rows as it needs until all the data from the original source csv is displayed.

There are many other powerful ways to feed Google Spreadsheets from all kinds of external sources. Check out this article for some demonstrations.