Mail Merge empty fields

[dawnd3]

How do I eliminate a blank line if a field is empty in a mail merge. (i.e. The person doesn't have a company name) How do I get rid of that space? (Word and Publisher 2003)

Thank you,

Dawn

http://www.calliopeconsulting.net

 

[macropod]

Hi dawnd3,

You could incorporate an IF test into your mailmerge fields.
To do this:
. make a copy of the company mergefield, and paste it alongside the existing one, so

«Company»«Company»

. select both fields and press Ctrl-F9 to wrap a new field around them, so

{«Company»«Company»}

. type an If test into the new field, so that the coding ends up as

{IF«Company» = "" "" "«Company»¶
"}

Note the paragraph (or line feed) mark within the field.
. press F9 to update the field
. delete the existing paragraph (or line feed) mark after your current mergefield.
. run your mailmerge.

Cheers


[MS MVP - Word]

 

[dawnd3]

I am trying to do this in Publisher, but when I press ctrl+f9 nothing happens. How do you edit the fields in publisher? (it works great in Word).

Thanks,

Dawn

http://www.calliopeconsulting.net

 

[macropod]

hi Dawn,

No idea with Publisher, sorry, but you might check whether it's mailmerge facility includes a 'suppress blank fields' facility. Word does - when you execute the merge it offers the option to 'Don't print blank lines when data fields are empty'. In theory, this should have allowed you to avoid blank lines in your Word document without the need for the field coding solution I posted.

Cheers

[MS MVP - Word]

 

[YNOTU]

dawnd3, try adding the variable data inside a rectangle. I just tested a file with multiple blanks and the data flows up and down getting rid of empty spaces.

Hope it helps.






Thanks
- Tony