Merge field+if statement+phone numbers

[John]

I have a form file in Word 2000 that merges with an Excel Database. One of
my fields is a telephone number.

I want to do two things with that telephone number. One format as (000)
000-0000 and if that Excel telephone field is blank when the merge takes
place, I do not want the telephone number to print at all. I want the field
to appear blank on the final merged document. However, if there is a
telephone number in that field then I want the telephone number to print in
the format shown above.

I have tried several versions of an if statement and cannot seem to obtain
the correct statement.

Here is what I have tried:

{IF{MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone}<>"""{MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone}"}

Also tried:

{IF{MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone\#"(000)'-'000'-'0000"}<>"""{MERGEFIELD
EmployerPhone\#"(000)'-'000'-'0000"}"}

and also:

{MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone\#"(000)'-'000'-'0000"}{IF{MERGEFIELD
EmployerPhone\#"(000)'-'000'-'0000"}<>"""{MERGEFIELD
EmployerPhone\#"(000)'-'000'-'0000"}"}

What am I doing wrong. I have tried merging with files that contain
telephone numbers and are blank. My results are not consistent. I can get
it to print in the format I want depending on the above statement variation,
but not consistently blank when the field is blank and not consistently print
the phone number when the filed is not blank.

Help!!!

AJ

 

[Peter Jamieson]

If you insert

{ MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone }

what results do you see?

Where you have blank in Excel, do you get blank in Word? Or do you sometimes
get 0 or even 0.0 ?

Where you have a phone number such as 5551234567 in Excel, what do you see
in Word?
5551234567 ?
(555)-123-4567 ?
or perhaps even
5551234567.0 ?

If you only ever get blank or 5551234567, then

{ MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone \#"(000)'-'000'-'0000" }

should be enough. If you get 0 where you have blank in Excel, you can try

{ IF { MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone } > 0
"{ MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone \#"(000)'-'000'-'0000" }"
"" }

(You don't have to split it across rows as I have done).

Peter Jamieson

 

[John]

Thanks for your help.

In reply to your questions:

Excel field is 5550002417 format

See below also




--
John R.

If you insert

{ MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone } what results do you see?

number unformated just as in Excel - 5550002417

Where you have blank in Excel, do you get blank in Word? Or do you sometimes
get 0 or even 0.0 ?

Actually I get a strange number 000-000-5245

Where you have a phone number such as 5551234567 in Excel, what do you see
in Word?
5551234567 ? Yes
(555)-123-4567 ? Only if I code with the merge code and then the switch to put the () and dashes.
or perhaps even
5551234567.0 ? NO.

If you only ever get blank or 5551234567, then

{ MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone \#"(000)'-'000'-'0000" }

should be enough. If you get 0 where you have blank in Excel, you can try

{ IF { MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone } > 0
"{ MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone \#"(000)'-'000'-'0000" }"
"" }

I can easily get the number to format with the correct () and dashes using
just the switch to do so and the MERGEFIELD Employer Phone. However, trying
to add in a statement that indicates that if the Excel field is blank then
print nothing in the merge final document and if the Excel field has a number
5552140000 then print that number but formated as (555)-214-0000.

Thank you,
AJ

 

[Peter Jamieson]

If you're getting

000-000-5245

when you should be getting <blank> then nothing you do with formatting
switches in Word is likely to work.

If you're connecting with DDE (the default) you may be seeing the type of
problem described in the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/204542/en-us

I can't check with Word/Excel 2000 right now, but if possible I would
probably go into each Excel cell in your EmployerPhone column that should be
<blank> and
a. use Edit|Clear|All to ensure it's blank
b. consider changing the cell format (Format|Cells|Number) to General or
Text.

I'm not sure that will make any difference but you could try it with a
couple of the offending cells and see what happens.

If you just have data and no cell formulas etc., you could also consider
recreating your sheet by exporting as .csv and re-importing.

Peter Jamieson

 

[John]

Thank you Peter. You have been a great help.

My problem was partly due to my error. I had assigned another person to
update the Excel telephone number fields to be 0000000000 instead of
000-000-0000. I just happened to be using the particular field as my test
field for this project that had not been correctly updated.

Anyway, the statement that finally worked correctly for me is the following:

{MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone\#"(000)'-'000'-'0000}{IF{MERGEFIELD
EmployerPhone}<>""""}.

Sorry to have caused you so much work. I am just thankful that it finally
works.

Take care.
AJ

 

[macropod]

Hi John,

If your Excel fields are all 5550002417 format, you don't need an IF test. You could use:
{MERGEFIELD EmployerPhone \# "(000)'-'000'-'0000;;"}
This will suppress the display if there is no phone number.

Cheers