How do you insert a hidden image in excel for mail merge?

[badgeprinter]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to get printed a lot of name badges for an event that start
tomorrow and feeling the pressure here.

Our name badges have a good deal of information on them, first name
last, company, twitter handle, speaker, sponsor and codes for whic
sessions folks are attending.

The layout has some merge fields centralized, some on the left, some o
the right, etc. on a 4x6 badge.

I've had no problems getting images and the fields on the badge space
where I want them. The problem I am having when I run the mail merge i
that certain fields move up when there are "blank" fields above the
that are - messing up the spacing.

For instance, if someone is not a speaker or sponsor - there is nothin
in that field so all the fields I had inserted below that - now move u
- throwing off the badge design. I first tried to do text boxes bu
quickly learned mail merge doesn't work with text boxes. I then trie
doing a shift return on some of the fields (so they are in the sam
paragraph) but that doesn't help me for items that can't be aligned th
same.

I think if I can just go back to the original excel doc and insert som
kind of "hidden" character in all the fields that are currently blan
that will solve the issue. So even when someone is not a sponsor fo
exanple, there is a "hidden" character that gets inserted in that dat
field on the badge but doesn't actually show as anything and thu
keeping all the other data fields in their same place.

Any thoughts on how to create that or other fix would be greatl
appreciated!

Many thanks.

Rya

 

[Stefan Blom]

Have you considered using a (nested) table? You can hide the borders of course.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP




"badgeprinter" wrote in message
Hi everyone,

I'm trying to get printed a lot of name badges for an event that starts
tomorrow and feeling the pressure here.

Our name badges have a good deal of information on them, first name,
last, company, twitter handle, speaker, sponsor and codes for which
sessions folks are attending.

The layout has some merge fields centralized, some on the left, some on
the right, etc. on a 4x6 badge.

I've had no problems getting images and the fields on the badge spaced
where I want them. The problem I am having when I run the mail merge is
that certain fields move up when there are "blank" fields above them
that are - messing up the spacing.

For instance, if someone is not a speaker or sponsor - there is nothing
in that field so all the fields I had inserted below that - now move up
- throwing off the badge design. I first tried to do text boxes but
quickly learned mail merge doesn't work with text boxes. I then tried
doing a shift return on some of the fields (so they are in the same
paragraph) but that doesn't help me for items that can't be aligned the
same.

I think if I can just go back to the original excel doc and insert some
kind of "hidden" character in all the fields that are currently blank
that will solve the issue. So even when someone is not a sponsor for
exanple, there is a "hidden" character that gets inserted in that data
field on the badge but doesn't actually show as anything and thus
keeping all the other data fields in their same place.

Any thoughts on how to create that or other fix would be greatly
appreciated!

Many thanks.

Ryan