mail merge in XP (again)

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mke - 15 Dec 2003 23:51 GMT

I received a reply to my Dec. 12 inquirty, but am still confused. Thanks to the reply I received, I enabled the old Mail Merge Helper command, however, even selecting the whole "skip blank lines" option, I am still getting the blank lines in some of my documents. I do not understand why. I do not understand what was said about IF fields not being removed, nor do I understand the Word XP Help screen info on "SET" and "IF." Does this refer to IF statements, etc. in the Data Source or the merge document? I feel like an idiot, it's not as though I am completely unfamiliar with various functions and language in Microsoft applications, but I am just staring that the "Help" info and blinking. Any further explanation would be most appreciated. Thank you

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Peter Jamieson - 16 Dec 2003 03:45 GMT

What kind of fields do you have in your Mail Merge Main document?

e.g. if you use Alt-F9 to show the "field codes", do you just see stuff like

{ MERGEFIELD this } and { MERGEFIELD that }

or do you also see fields like

{ IF followed by lots of stuff }

and/or

{ ADDRESSBLOCK followed by lots of stuff }

> Does this refer to IF statements, etc. in the Data Source or the merge document?

In the merge document. As far as I know, the behaviour of the "suppress
blank lines" feature is the same in Word 2002 as in Word 2002 /except/ when
you nest fields within other fields such as an IF field. Which is the only
reason I mentioned those field types. If you don't have them, my comments
were not relevant to your situation.

--
Peter Jamieson - Word MVP

> I received a reply to my Dec. 12 inquirty, but am still confused. Thanks to the reply I received, I enabled the old Mail Merge Helper command,

however, even selecting the whole "skip blank lines" option, I am still
getting the blank lines in some of my documents. I do not understand why.
I do not understand what was said about IF fields not being removed, nor do
I understand the Word XP Help screen info on "SET" and "IF." Does this
refer to IF statements, etc. in the Data Source or the merge document? I
feel like an idiot, it's not as though I am completely unfamiliar with
various functions and language in Microsoft applications, but I am just
staring that the "Help" info and blinking. Any further explanation would be
most appreciated. Thank you.

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