Merge comparison operators missing

[davcmo]

Hello. One of my co-workers performs mailmerges in Word 2003 using excel
files. She often uses the Contains and Does not contain operators. She can
no longer see them. I tried a merge on my computer and cannot see these
options either. They used to appear at the bottom of the list of operator
choices. Any idea where they went/how I can get them back? Did an update
lay them to watse?

 

[Graham Mayor]

Often uses them? I don't recall that it was ever possible to resolve part of
a field in Word, though to a limited extent you can use wildcards.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[davcmo]

Graham, thanks for responding so quickly. Here's the scoop:

merge step 2 - select recipients/use existing list, select an Excel file
(I'm sure that any file would work (Access, etc.)
Insert Word Field
If...Then...Else
Comparison - Here's where the Contains and Does not contain no longer exists

I am looking at a copy of page 579 from a manual of some sort (?!?) that
talks about comparison operators in Word and lists these two items and their
explanations. They are last in the list, following Is not blank.

Could it be that the last office update got rid of these as they could be a
wildcard/security risk? I checked Word 2007 and it doesn't have it either...

 

[Peter Jamieson]

There has never been a contains/does not contain /in the IF merge field/
Those choices are for filtering the records and are in the "Query options"
dialog box, which used to be available through the Mail Merge Helper in Word
97/2000. In Word 2003, you have to go into the Mail Merge Recipients dialog
box (if necessary enable the MailMerge toolbar using e.g. View|Toolbars),
then select the small down arrow at the top of one of the data columns and
select the Advanced option.

 

[Graham Mayor]

The mailmerge helper incidentally is still available - even as far as Word
2007. http://www.gmayor.com/mail_merge_labels_with_word_xp.htm or
http://www.gmayor.com/merge_labels_with_word_2007.htm

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Peter Jamieson]

And I forgot to mention that the "Contains" and "Does not contain" options
are not available for some types of data source (primarily, I think, Word
documents and other files read using Word's converter technology).

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Yes, the reason why I don't mention Mail Merge Helper when it comes to Query
Options is because the Query Options in Mail Merge Helper and even the
standalone one you can drag out from Tools|Customize|All Commands do not
appear to function in the same way as the one you can get to from Mail merge
Recipients. This problem seems to be /in addition to/ the problem that Query
Options has a tendency to forget the criteria you specify when you are using
certain types of data source.

For example, if I attach a .csv data source in Word 2003 and specify OLE DB
(or if Word chooses that method itself) and use Mail Merge Helper or
standalone Query Options to specify a filter such as firstname contains
andrew, when I use VBA to inspect the QueryString, the WHERE clause needed
to do the filtering is not there (although it is possible that Word is still
doing the filtering another way, e.g. including/exluding individual records
that match/do not match). If I then open the Mail Merge Recipients and go
via the dropdown at the top of the column and the Advanced... option, the
criteria are displayed (which is interesting because I always thought that
Word regenerated them from the QueryString, but perhaps it caches a separate
copy somewhere). However, if I now click OK and look at the QueryString
again, the WHERE clause is there.

I do not know what the situation is in Word 2007.