Is it possible to insert a line break into a mergefield?

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Lee McArthur - 28 Mar 2007 09:23 GMT

I'm trying to supress blank mergefields in an address with the
following fields:

Add1
Add2
Add3
Add4
City
State
Postcode

This information is dragged from an SQL Database and uses the
following code:

{ MERGEFIELD "ADD1" <SLXMergeField source="SLXSPECIAL"
name="SLXSPECIAL_SQL" calculated="false" formatType="0"
formatString="" version="6.2"><Parameters><Parameter name="SQL"><!
[CDATA[SELECT ADDRESS.ADDRESS1 FROM ACCOUNT INNER JOIN ADDRESS ON
ACCOUNT.ADDRESSID = ADDRESS.ADDRESSIF WHERE (ACCOUNT.ACCOUNTID
= :AccountID)]]></Parameter></Parameters></SLXMergeField> }

The Data merges fine and isn't an issue. However I can't for the life
of me get the fields to suppress! I've followed quite a few
suggestions from other problems on here, such as different kinds of IF
statements. I've used bookmarks too but can't get rid of the blank
lines created when no data is available.

What I'm wondering is, is it possible to insert a new line through a
fieldcode? I reckon that would work. Add1 is a bookmark that contains
the Address Line 1 data:

{ IF { Add1 } <> "" "{ Add1} /n" }{ IF { Add2 } <> "" "{ Add2} /n" }
Where /n would be a new line.... for example.

Maybe I'm missing something obvious? SQL code just doesn't want to
suppress :(

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

ps. Just pressing the return key within the mergefield doesn't work,
I've tried that too!

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Lee McArthur - 28 Mar 2007 09:25 GMT

I forgot to add, I'm using Word 2003.

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Peter Jamieson - 28 Mar 2007 09:50 GMT

I would have to check, but I don't think the blank line suppression in Word
works on blank lines that happen to be part of the field data, only on blank
lines that consist of one or more blank fields.

What is probably required here is to suppress the blank lines in the
database itself - if you have no control over what is in it, then there's
not a lot you can do about that unless you can construct the address you
want from individual fields in the database. If you do have control I'd
suggest adding a view/stored procedure/function that does the necessary
stripping.

It looks as if you are using SalesLogix (about which I know nothing) and
that it is either using info. stored in each MERGEFIELD to generate the
necessary queries or is populating the MERGEFIELD fields with data itself
rather than using Word's merge process - if it's the latter, maybe they have
some switch or other than can remove blank lines?

When your data is inserted, does it come in with paragraph marks at the end
of each line, or hard line breaks, cf. the ones you get using
ctrl-shift-enter? If the latter, you might be able to work around using Word
paragraph formatting features.

Peter Jamieson

> I'm trying to supress blank mergefields in an address with the
> following fields:
[quoted text clipped - 39 lines]
> ps. Just pressing the return key within the mergefield doesn't work,
> I've tried that too!

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Lee McArthur - 28 Mar 2007 10:22 GMT

Peter thanks alot for the very swift response!

> What is probably required here is to suppress the blank lines in the
> database itself - if you have no control over what is in it, then there's
> not a lot you can do about that unless you can construct the address you
> want from individual fields in the database. If you do have control I'd
> suggest adding a view/stored procedure/function that does the necessary
> stripping.

You are correct we are using SalesLogix, however I have severely
limited knowledge/experience of the back end and therefore I am
currently unable to add any procedures or anything at the source.

> rather than using Word's merge process - if it's the latter, maybe they have
> some switch or other than can remove blank lines?

I will contact the supplier to find out if they have a switch of their
own - thanks.

> When your data is inserted, does it come in with paragraph marks at the end
> of each line, or hard line breaks, cf. the ones you get using
> ctrl-shift-enter? If the latter, you might be able to work around using Word
> paragraph formatting features.

When the data is inserted there are no line breaks of any kind, and if
I were to have the fields in a row, data could merge in this way:

AddressLine1CityPostcode

I'm not sure if this will help, but using standard SalesLogix merge
fields the supression works, and the code is as follows:

{ MERGEFIELD "Contact_Address_Address1" <SLXMergeField name =
"ADDRESS1 calculated="false" formatType="0" formatString=""> <Join
type="inner"> <From table="CONTACT" field="ADDRESSID"/> <To
table="ADDRESS" field="ADDRESS"/> </Join></SLXMergeField> }

Again, thanks for the help Peter. I'll contact the supplier to see if
they have any answers too!

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