Complex mail merge - help required!!!

[Paul Marshall]

Dear all,

I am trying to create a mail merge in Word that will format references
list for reports and papers. I think I need to use IF fields to get
the required result but am having trouble.

I will try and explain what I need. I have a database that can hold up
to 15 authors per reference. The punctuation that follows each author
will depend on whether there are other authors for that reference.

For example the punctuation for a solo author referece would be as
follows:
1st authors surname, 1st authors initials. Year.

The puncutation for a reference with two authors would be:
1st authors surname, first authors initials. & 2nd authors surname,
2nd authors initials. Year.

The punctuation for a reference with three authors would be:
1st authors surname, first authors initials., 2nd authors surname, 2nd
authors initials. & 3rd authors surname, 3rd authors initials. Year.

and so on . . .

So what I am trying to achive is a nested IF field that says

IF no second or third authors punctuate as in example 1, IF a second
but no third author punctuate as in example 2, IF a second and third
author puntuate as in example 3

Hope this makes sense and somebody out there can save me from
attempting to write my 3000th unsuccesful mailmerge!!!

Many thanks in advance

Paul

 

[Graham Mayor]

You will not be able to nest 15 conditional fields of this type. So you need
plan B. Use a selection of conditional fields all on the same line to insert
the fields and their punctuation. eg something along the lines:

{Mergefield Author1Surname}, {Mergefield Author1Initials}{IF{Mergefield
Author2Surname} <> "" " & {Mergefield Author2Surname}, {Mergefield
Author2Initials}"}{IF{Mergefield Author3Surname} <> "" " & {Mergefield
Author3Surname}, {Mergefield Author3Initials}"}{IF{Mergefield
Author4Surname} <> "" " & {Mergefield Author4Surname}, {Mergefield
Author4Initials}"}{IF{Mergefield Author5Surname} <> "" " & {Mergefield
Author5Surname}, {Mergefield Author5Initials}"} etc

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Dan]

This was helpful. Where can I find the documentation on these mailmerge options? HELP provides squat except for a few cryptic lines on IF in mergefields. I haven't seen the & concatenation operator used that way and can't find guidance on it either.