Blank fields

[oe]

Can someone please point me in the direction of help understanding the Null
fields, e.g. "" " so that I can work out If..Else..statements, etc - this
does not appear to be covered in Help for Word 2003

TIA

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

If a field is empty or blank, it will be equal to "" in an If...then....Else
field construction.

Is there anything else that you need to know about it?

--
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

 

[oe]

I seem to have trouble merging when the first one or two mergefields are
blank, e.g.

Title Initial . Last_Name

If Title is blank, I want to enter Initial but without a blank space at the
beginning; if there is nothing in the Title or Initial fields, I want just
the last name - again without any blanks. It should look something like
Title: Mr (or blank space)
Initial: A (or blank space)
Last_Name (two blank spaces) Famille Dupont

Not sure if I've explained that very well!
Thanks for your help.

 

[oe]

Can anyone help with this problem, please?

I seem to have trouble merging when the first one or two mergefields are
blank, e.g.

Title Initial . Last_Name

If Title is blank, I want to enter Initial but without a blank space at
the beginning; if there is nothing in the Title or Initial fields, I want
just the last name - again without any blanks. It should look something
like
Title: Mr (or blank space)
Initial: A (or blank space)
Last_Name (two blank spaces) Famille Dupont

Not sure if I've explained that very well!
Thanks for your help.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Doug Robbins' answer covers it.

Try help under "If field." Click on examples.

{ If Test1 = "" "" "Test1 " }

This checks the value of the bookmark Test1. If it is empty, nothing is
inserted, otherwise if it is not empty, Test1 followed by a space is
inserted. You would insert your merge field in place of Test1 in both
places.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[oe]

I still seem to have something wrong here.

I have

Title Initial . Last_Name

One of my addressees is J Smith

Whatever I try, I get a blank space before the "J"

 

[Graham Mayor]

{IF {Mergefield Title} <> "" "{Mergefield Title} "}{Mergefield Initial}.
{Mergefield Last_Name}

ie

{IF {Mergefield Title}space<>space""space"{Mergefield
Title}space"}{Mergefield Initial}.space{Mergefield Last_Name}

Should do it.


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


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[masterkeys]

Just a simple thought but,

Have you tried turning on the paragraph format characters, that big
weird P button, while field names are displayed, to make sure there
isn't a rogue space between each merge field?

 

[oe]

Thanks -that works fine!

 

[Graham Mayor]

You would still get a space attributable to the space following the missing
Title field. You could manually remove this from the merged document, but by
using a condition field to place the title field *and* its following space,
the problem doesn't arise.

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


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[masterkeys]

Graham,

I know, this was just to make sure there wasn't a rogue space between
the conditional field too, after it was changed.

MK