Please help a complete newby (Merge)

[Stan]

Hi all,
Using Word 2002 & Excel 2002
I have created an Excel sheet with various columns, and I have, for
example a column with a heading "Name". In my Word document I have
<<Name>> and this works fine when I print the letter.
The problem I have is with a column with the heading "Portion", linked
to my Word document in the same way. Not every cell in the "Portion"
column has an entry, many are blank but the blank cells show as "0" in
my letter.
What I require is that if a particular "Portion" cell is empty then
nothing should appear in the letter, and if anything (e.g. a number
"3" or text "RE") appears in a cell then "Por 3" or "Por RE should
appear in the letter.
I tried Alt+F9 in my word document and all that happens is that "R" in
a circle appears where my cursor is.
Thanks in advance.
Stan

 

[w]

Stan, did you try using conditional formatting with
your "Portion" merge field? I've only used it a few times,
not with Excel or Word 2002, so I don't know if it's still
an option. I think there's something in the "Word Fields"
menu, an If...Elsechoice. You could set up the If...Else
so that IF the Portion field in Excel = 0, print nothing,
ELSE print "Por" + {Portion field}. This field used to be
handy, in older versions of Word, for printing comments in
form letters. If this conditional formatting is no longer
an option in the newer Word, you may have to add a column
to your Excel file based on the Portion column (and then
use Excel's If...Then function in it. Use this new column
as a merge field instead...but of course you'd have to re-
link your Word document, and re-insert the field). Good
luck!