automatically inserting text in a merge field blank field.

[DrTominRI]

I greatly appreciate the help this neophyte recieved here recently so here is
another question.

I am using an access DB to create a merged word Document, sending letters to
other colleagues. I have it set up fine if I know the recipeints last name
and company, but if the name field is blank I would like it to automatically
insert another word. e.g if it is to Mr smith, at Mountainview Business Ctr
it should say "Dear Mr Smith". But if it is to some one unknown at Bayview
Business Ctr it should say "Dear Colleague"

I have the Insert before or after if not blank thing down, but the preformed
wizard that comes up with the genereic <<greeting line>> is not what I want

Thanks
Tom

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?RHJUb21pblJJ?=,

I am using an access DB to create a merged word Document, sending letters to
other colleagues. I have it set up fine if I know the recipeints last name
and company, but if the name field is blank I would like it to automatically
insert another word. e.g if it is to Mr smith, at Mountainview Business Ctr
it should say "Dear Mr Smith". But if it is to some one unknown at Bayview
Business Ctr it should say "Dear Colleague"

I have the Insert before or after if not blank thing down, but the preformed
wizard that comes up with the genereic <<greeting line>> is not what I want

Is this alternate form of address something you have stored in a look-up table,
and can bring into the data source via a query? If yes, then you can set up an
IF field in the mail merge that looks something like

Dear { IF { Mergefield Name } = "" "{ Mergefield AltAddress }" "{ Mergefield
Name }" }

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Graham Mayor]

Or if the alternative is not in the data file you could test the missing
field as suggested by Cindy and insert the following construction:

Dear {IF{Mergefield name} <> "" "{Mergefield Name}" "Colleague" }

Use CTRL+F9 to insert the field boundaries {}

You may find http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm useful.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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