Possible to calculate from a cell?

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JAnderson - 25 Jan 2008 00:53 GMT

I'm very familiar with Excel, but not very much with Word and its Merge fields.

I want to use a calculated value in several places, based on the contents of
merge fields. Example:

Subtotal: (Merge field A)
Tax: (Merge field B)
Shipping: (Merge field C)
TOTAL: (SUM of all 3 fields)

So, the question is whether I can have a cell where I can sum all 3 fields,
and whether I can reference that "TOTAL" field in another few places in the
document (rather than recalculating each time).

Thanks for any suggestions!

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Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 25 Jan 2008 05:31 GMT

Use the formula

{ = { MERGEFIELD A } + { MERGEFIELD B } + { MERGEFIELD C } }

You must use Ctrl+F9 to insert each pair of field delimiters { }, and you
may also want to add a formatted switch.

See "Formatting Word fields with switches" on fellow MVP Graham Mayor's
website at

http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm

Signature

Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

> I'm very familiar with Excel, but not very much with Word and its Merge
> fields.
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
> Thanks for any suggestions!

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JAnderson - 25 Jan 2008 16:33 GMT

That makes sense, thank you. Now, what if each Merge field is itself
determined by an if statement? Here's a simplified example ignoring
formatting for now (also, is it required to end formatting switches with "\*
MERGEFORMAT" or is that something Word puts in unnecessarily?):

Subtotal: {if {MERGEFIELD A} = "Widget" "300.00" "150.00"}
Tax: {if {MERGEFIELD B} = "Ohio" "20.00" "0.00"}
Shipping: {if {MERGEFIELD C} = "Ohio" "20.00" "0.00"}

TOTAL: ????? (Normally I would just nest all 3 of the above IF statements,
but there must be a better way).

Any ideas?

> Use the formula
>
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> >
> > Thanks for any suggestions!

Reply to this Message

Graham Mayor - 26 Jan 2008 09:12 GMT

How about

{ SET TA { if { MERGEFIELD A } = "Widget" "300.00" "150.00" } }{ SET TB
{ if { MERGEFIELD B } = "Ohio" "20.00" "0.00" } }{ SET TC { if { MERGEFIELD
C } = "Ohio" "20.00" "0.00" } }
Subtotal: { REF TA \# "$,0.00" }
Tax: { REF TB \# "$,0.00" }
Shipping: { REF TC \# "$,0.00" }
TOTAL: { ={REF TA } + { REF TB } + { REF TC } \# "$,0.00" }

Signature

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

> That makes sense, thank you. Now, what if each Merge field is itself
> determined by an if statement? Here's a simplified example ignoring
[quoted text clipped - 50 lines]
>>>
>>> Thanks for any suggestions!

Reply to this Message

Peter Jamieson - 30 Jan 2008 17:54 GMT

<<
also, is it required to end formatting switches with "\*
MERGEFORMAT"

No it isn't.

<<
or is that something Word puts in unnecessarily?):

Yes, although I suspect MS thinks inserting it results in a better
experience on average for most users and they may be right.

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Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

> That makes sense, thank you. Now, what if each Merge field is itself
> determined by an if statement? Here's a simplified example ignoring
[quoted text clipped - 43 lines]
>> >
>> > Thanks for any suggestions!

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