HUGE if statements...lots of blank space

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Heather - 06 Nov 2006 23:07 GMT

Twice in a day...sorry, guys.

So I'm working on my merge codes, and the document is insanely large.
Like, really big. Pages and pages of merge code IF statements - there
are a ton of variables. My two page letter is up to 12 pages of merge
code.

Problem is that when I have false results, and I specify "", I'm
getting a huge amount of blank space in my letters after I complete the
merge.

Thoughts? Would a switch help with something like this?

Heather

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Heather - 06 Nov 2006 23:24 GMT

Oh - and I'm using Word 2003.

Heather

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macropod - 07 Nov 2006 06:13 GMT

Hi Heather,

The trick to suppressing the inclusion of extraneous text, spaces & carriage
returns/line feeds in to conditionally include them in your IF tests.

For example, instead of having a space after:
{IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010
{IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}>= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}< 85
"{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84}"}}}}
when the result is empty, delete the space following the field and encode
the field as:
{IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010
{IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}>= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}< 85
"{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84} "}}}}

You can replace the space following the INCLUDETEXT field with a text string
and/or a carriage return/line feed, if appropriate. You can just as readily
incorporate the conditional text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds ahead
of the INCLUDETEXT field - you can even do both. Simply put all of the
conditional text within the quote characters used to define the bounds of
the true result.

Cheers

Signature

macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

> Twice in a day...sorry, guys.
>
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>
> Heather

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Heather - 07 Nov 2006 15:46 GMT

I thought that a false result returning nothing should have "" double
quotations?

> Hi Heather,
>
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> >
> > Heather

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Peter Jamieson - 07 Nov 2006 17:08 GMT

It's difficult to tell why without seeing the document or a really accurate
transcription of the field codes, but my best guess is as follows.

Suppose you have

a
{ IF b = c "d" "" }
{ IF e = f "g" "" }
i

then if both comparisons fail you will get

a

i

because there is a paragraph mark after each IF field, and it will always be
inserted.

If you use

a{ IF b = c "d" "" }{ IF e = f "g" "" }i

you won't get these extra paragraph marks.

If you want to long chunks of field codes a bit easier to read (but with
more problems switching from field code view to field result view, because
of repagination, unless you're in "Normal View"), you can use

a{ IF b = c "d" ""
}{ IF e = f "g" ""
}i

Peter Jamieson

>I thought that a false result returning nothing should have "" double
> quotations?
[quoted text clipped - 45 lines]
>> >
>> > Heather

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Heather - 07 Nov 2006 17:36 GMT

I've been really careeful to keep an eye on paragraph marks after my IF
fields...I'm starting to think that the larger issue is the sheer
amount of code I'm putting into these letters. Here is an example:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291618325/

That is a working copy of my code, with white space inserted in between
each block of IF statements. When I paste it into my template letter, I
go through and delete all of the paragraphs and make it one big run-on
paragraph.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291622301/

That's as much as I could fit into a single screenshot. But there are
pages and pages of this...yesterday afternoon, I hit 12 pages of code
for a two page letter.

I'm trying reducing the code in the main letter to reference just two
of the conditions, and then merge a document into the letter if both
are true...that seems to be cutting down on the insertion of the white
space.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291623913/

I really appreciate your help (and macropods, and Graham, and others)
with this. Learning this code has been really difficult!

Heather

> It's difficult to tell why without seeing the document or a really accurate
> transcription of the field codes, but my best guess is as follows.
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> >> >
> >> > Heather

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Heather - 07 Nov 2006 18:28 GMT

Well...sort of a fix, but it still doesn't solve the original problem.
But...it's working, so I'll just go with it.

I found some macro code and edited it some - so any instance of three
paragraph marks will be deleted. The ultimate solution - at this point
- will be to apply styles to my letters so that I don't have any double
paragraph marks, which would allow the letters to be refined even
further.

Sub ReplacePara()
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "^p^p^p"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute
While Selection.Find.Found
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
Selection.TypeBackspace
Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=2
Selection.Find.Execute
Wend
End Sub

Seven days to go-live...not that I'm counting.... ;)

> I've been really careeful to keep an eye on paragraph marks after my IF
> fields...I'm starting to think that the larger issue is the sheer
[quoted text clipped - 109 lines]
> > >> >
> > >> > Heather

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Peter Jamieson - 07 Nov 2006 18:31 GMT

I had the impression that you were sure that this extra space was coming in
via "false" evaluations in the IF fields, but just to be certain, could it
be coming in because the bookmarks in your included documents cover
paragraph marks and/or other white space?

I have to say that when I try this here (in a simplifed case where I just
replicate the IF field a few hundred times) I don't get any extra white
space except the stuff that comes in from bookmarks.

Peter Jamieson

> I've been really careeful to keep an eye on paragraph marks after my IF
> fields...I'm starting to think that the larger issue is the sheer
[quoted text clipped - 120 lines]
>> >> >
>> >> > Heather

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Heather - 07 Nov 2006 18:59 GMT

I don't _think_ so, but I could be wrong. I have inspected the
bookmarks to look for extra paragraph marks and white space...but I
could be missing something. But it seemed like this problem of the
gigantor white space didn't seem to arise until my merge codes started
going on for more than 15-20 lines. I haven't found any documentation
to support that theory...but now that I've hit the fifteenth page of
code for a two page letter, I suspect it might be the case.

I'm definitely not the expert, though. But apply a style to the overall
template and then running a macro to take out the extra paragraph
results is doing what I need it to do. Very weird.

Generally speaking, how does the spacing within an {if
{mergefield...}""} code impact the final spacing in a merged letter?

Heather

> I had the impression that you were sure that this extra space was coming in
> via "false" evaluations in the IF fields, but just to be certain, could it
[quoted text clipped - 131 lines]
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Heather

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Peter Jamieson - 07 Nov 2006 21:04 GMT

All my efforts to complicate and lengthen/deepen my own test sample haven't
revealed the problem yet, but my sample is still rather simple..

> I haven't found any documentation
> to support that theory...but now that I've hit the fifteenth page of
> code for a two page letter, I suspect it might be the case.

It could well be. If you would like a second opinion and feel able to
provide the document and a suitable sample data source I can certainly have
a look here, probably tomorrow (Wednesday).

Peter Jamieson

>I don't _think_ so, but I could be wrong. I have inspected the
> bookmarks to look for extra paragraph marks and white space...but I
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>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > Heather

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macropod - 07 Nov 2006 23:26 GMT

Hi Heather,

If the false result is empty, there's no need to include it at all. You'll
also note I left out most of the other double-quotes - if expression
consists of another field, they're not needed either.

Cheers

Signature

macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

> I thought that a false result returning nothing should have "" double
> quotations?
[quoted text clipped - 41 lines]
> > >
> > > Heather

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Heather - 08 Nov 2006 18:19 GMT

Thanks, Macropod. And thanks for the offer, Peter - I think I'll just
keep plugging away on my project for now.

Heather

> Hi Heather,
>
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> > > >
> > > > Heather

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