Omitting empty field

[Rob]

I seem to recall in an earlier version (currently using XP 2002) there was
an option to omit emty fields. Am I missing it somewhere in 2002, if not
can anyone help.

I have various documents, usually labels or envelopes which are connect to
either a database or a spreadsheet. Sometime there may be a blank field on
a line on either the envelop or the label and I get an empty line where this
blank field would be.

Many thanks,

Rob

 

[Andrea Jones]

If you click on Tools -> Mail Merge and click on the Merge button at step 3
of the mail merge window you should still see the two bullet options for
printing or not printing blank lines at the bottom of the window in Word
2002. Alternatively, you can click on the Merge button on the mail merge
toolbar to display the same window.

Andrea Jones
http://www.allaboutoffice.co.uk
http://www.stratatraining.co.uk
http://www.allaboutclait.com

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Go to Tools|Customize|Comands, select category All Commands, then locate
MailMergeHelper in the list of commands and drag it to a toolbar or menu (I
enable the Mail Merge toolbar in Word 2002 and add the command to that).
When you click that button you should be able to get tot eh original
options.

However,
a. "suppress blank lines" is the default setting of this option anyway
b. unfortunately after Word 2000 things changed so that the option does not
work when the fields concerned are nested inside another field such as IF,
INCLUDETEXT, AUTOTEXT. So if yiou have that situation, you have to work
around by using e.g.

{ IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = ""
""
"
{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" }

Peter Jamieson

 

[Rob]

Many thanks, I thought I was losing it there - thank you very much.

Rob