Punctuating properly when mailmerging

[tinkerbelle]

I am currently writing a letter which includes for example, up to 3 different
deductions and rates. I have made the three mailmerge if formulas to only
bring through the ones that should be deducted but when I read the letter it
doesnt entirely make sense as it has not commas or "and"

At the moment i get

#% Tax #% NI #% Pension

What I would like is;

#% Tax, #% NI and #% Pension
or
#% Tax and #%NI
or
#% Tax and #% Pension
or
#%NI and #% Pension

Please could someone tell me if this is possible??

Thanks for your help - sarah

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Yes, it should be possible with the use of If...then...Else field
constructions. However, if the data source was an Access table, I would be
more inclined to use IF() functions in an Access Query to get the result
rather than do it in the mailmerge main document.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[tinkerbelle]

Hi I am using excel for the data, please could you explain the if..then..else
funstion as it is one i am not familiar with.

Thanks - Sarah

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

{ IF { MERGEFIELD Tax } > 0 { IF { MERGEFIELD Ni } > 0 { IF { MERGEFIELD
Pension } > 0 "{ MERGEFIELD Tax }, { MERGEFIELD Ni } and { MERGEFIELD
Pension }" "{ MERGEFIELD Tax } and { MERGEFIELD Ni }" }{ IF { MERGEFIELD
Pension } > 0 "{ MERGEFIELD Tax } and { MERGEFIELD Pension }" "{ MERGEFIELD
Tax }" }{ IF { MERGEFIELD Ni } > 0 { IF { MERGEFIELD Pension } > 0 "{
MERGEFIELD Ni } and { MERGEFIELD Pension }" "{ MERGEFIELD Ni }"} { IF {
MERGEFIELD Pension } > 0 "{ MERGEFIELD Pension }" "" }}

You must use Ctrl+F9 to insert each pair of the field delimiters { } and you
use Alt+F9 to toggle off their display.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[tinkerbelle]

Hi Doug, Thanks for you help, however after turning your message below into
the fields in word, I got an error, i think this is because there are
different amounts of Open brackets to closed brackets.

I have tried to make it work but i just get errors.

Any chance you could have a quick look at where the other brackets should be??

Thanks for you time and help - Sarah

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I believe that there are a couple of missing closing }} at the end of what
I posted, so that the field construction should look like:

{ IF { MERGEFIELD Tax } > 0 { IF { MERGEFIELD Ni } > 0 { IF { MERGEFIELD
Pension } > 0 "{ MERGEFIELD Tax }, { MERGEFIELD Ni } and { MERGEFIELD
Pension }" "{ MERGEFIELD Tax } and { MERGEFIELD Ni }" }{ IF { MERGEFIELD
Pension } > 0 "{ MERGEFIELD Tax } and { MERGEFIELD Pension }" "{ MERGEFIELD
Tax }" }{ IF { MERGEFIELD Ni } > 0 { IF { MERGEFIELD Pension } > 0 "{
MERGEFIELD Ni } and { MERGEFIELD Pension }" "{ MERGEFIELD Ni }"} { IF {
MERGEFIELD Pension } > 0 "{ MERGEFIELD Pension }" "" }}}}


However, if you used Ctrl+F9 to insert the field delimiters, they will be
balanced as each time you use Ctrl+F9, a pair of field delimiters is
inserted.

Another thing however is that it is necessary to have a space either side of
each > operator.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP