using Word field "if" for a list item?

[mzimmers]

Hi -

I'm not sure this is the exact right forum for this question, but
hopefully it's close enough!

I'm trying to use the Word field "if...then...else" in a merge-data
document. The snag is that I want to conditionally include an item in
the middle of a numbered list, but I don't seem able to imbed the list
element formatting within the "if" construct.

1. is there a way to do this with this construct?
2. is there a *better* way to do this?

Thanks for any help...

mz

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

The forum is OK, but I believe we need a bit more information on what it is
that you are starting with (i.e. details of the data) and what you are
trying to achieve. Information on the latter is probably best conveyed by a
mock-up of the desired result.

If you can give us that, it will give a better chance of being able to help
you.

--

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

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[mzimmers]

I'd be happy to do a mock-up. I'm relatively new to these boards -- do
I attach a short Word file somehow, or just put a bit of text inline
here?

Thanks...

 

[mzimmers]

And as long as I'm asking simplistic questions: how can I imbed
carriage returns in the text within an "if" word field? I'm having
trouble getting the paragraph spacing the way that I want it using the
"if" field, and I'm thinking that if I just manually take control of
the carriage returns, I can make it work. Thanks...

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Include paragraph marks in the result texts, e.g. if you have

{ IF X = Y "abc" "def" }

and you want

ab
c

if X = Y, put the insertion point after "ab" in the field and press Enter so
you have

{ IF X = Y "ab
c "def" }

(i.e. it's probably more obvious than you realised ) However, whether
that will help solve your problem I cannot tell.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

No, attachments are frowned upon.

Just create it as best you can in the body of the message that you post to
the group.

--
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

 

[mzimmers]

Include paragraph marks in the result texts, e.g. if you have

{ IF X = Y "abc" "def" }

and you want

ab
c

if X = Y, put the insertion point after "ab" in the field and press Enter so
you have

{ IF X = Y "ab
c "def" }

(i.e. it's probably more obvious than you realised ) However, whether
that will help solve your problem I cannot tell.

Yeah, sadly, that doesn't seem to work for me. The new paragraphs are
evident when in "View Field Code" mode, but they show up in white, and
don't appear to be included within the quotes holding the conditional
text.

Here's what I'm trying to do with lists:

- list item number 1. this applies to all documents blah blah blah...
- list item number 2. this applies to all documents blah blah blah...
{ IF {MERGEFIELD EntityType } = "Consultant" "- list item number 3.
this applies to documents pertaining to consultants blah blah blah..."
"" }
- list item number 4. this applies to all documents blah blah blah...

and so on and so forth. According to the online help, text formatting
isn't passed along with the text inside the "IF" statement. Evidently,
this includes list element formatting. The problem is, if I leave the
list item definition in the main document, it appears (as a blank)
even when the "IF" is false.

As I mentioned before, I'm totally open to other ways of approaching
this problem. Thanks again...

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Will have to look again for numbered lists, sorry. (FWIW I never found an
approach that worked before, but that doesn't mean there is no workable
approach)

Peter Jamieson

 

[macropod]

Hi mzimmers,

You can put a whole word document insie and IF field if you want, inluding paragraph breaks, page & section breaks - all except for
the final paragraph mark. For an idea of how to go about this, take a look at the topics under the heading titled 'Use Date (And/Or
Time) Comparisons To Vary Text' in my Date Calc 'tutorial', at:
http://www.wopr.com/cgi-bin/w3t/showthreaded.pl?Number=249902

Cheers

 

[Peter Jamieson]

If I have understood your requirement correctly, I think what you have to do
is abandon Word's built-in list numbering and use fields to generate the
numbers. There are a few obvious field types you could try (e.g. { SEQ },
{ AUTONUM } and { LISTNUM }, but IME itt's difficult to get any of them to
work how you want - e.g. Word processes { SEQ } inside an IF field "true"
result even when it ends up inserting the "false" result and vice versa, so
numbering after the IF goes haywire.

Try the following which seems to work in a simple example here:

{ SET S 1 }{ S } This should be bullet 1
{ SET S {=S+1 } }{ S } This should be bullet 2
{ IF {MERGEFIELD EntityType } = "Consultant"
"{ SET S {=S+1 } }{ S } If present, this should be bullet 3
" "" }{ SET S {=S+1 } }{ S } This could be bullet 3 or 4

Peter Jamieson

 

[mzimmers]

Hey, Peter...thanks for the response; that method looks promising. I
stumbled on entering the "{ S }", though...what command do you use for
that?