Can I keep my records from spanning pages?

[George Adams]

Hi, all. I have a fairly typical mail-merge job to do - I'm going to
create a paper directory of our church members, taking the data from an
ODBC database (MySQL). So it will look something like:

<lastname>, <firstname>
<addressLine1>
<addressLine2>
<addressLine3>
<city>, <state> <ZIP>
<phone1>
<phone2>
<phone3>
-- doublespace to start next record

I have a couple of basic questions:

1) How can I prevent a record from spanning multiple pages? i.e. how
can I tell Word that, if it can't fit an ENTIRE listing for a person in
the space left on the page, it should automatically go to the next page
and print the record there?

2) Is it possible to "collapse" the record if, say, addressLine2 and
addressLine3 aren't in the original MS-Access database? I don't want it
to print 2 blank lines - I want it to go straight from the <lastname>,
<addressLine1> line to the <city>, <state> <zip> line.

I have Word 2000, XP, and 2003 to work with. If it's possible to
accomplish these goals on all 3 versions, that'd be nice! If not, I'll
take instructions for any version you can make to work.

Thanks to anyone who can help!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

These two goals are not mutually exclusive but somewhat incompatible. Here's
the skinny:

1. The easiest way to assure keeping the entire record on the same page is
to use line breaks (Shift+Enter) at the end of each line before the last and
format the paragraph as "Keep lines together" (Format | Paragraph | Line and
Page Breaks).

2. This is the tricky part: If you use paragraph breaks (Enter) at the ends
of the lines, Word will automatically suppress blank lines. If you use line
breaks, you have to use IF fields to tell Word to insert the merge text
(including the line break) only if the merge field is not blank. That's a
pain.

3. In your situation, then, probably the easiest thing to do is use
paragraph breaks (despite the fact that line breaks are more logical and
elegant), and format each paragraph except for the last as "Keep with next."

4. *Don't*, however, use a double space between records. Instead, add some
Space Before to the first paragraph in the block (or Space After to the
last). This will prevent the likelihood of having an empty paragraph at the
beginning of a page. An easy way to add 12 points Space Before (about the
equivalent of a blank line) is Ctrl+0. This space will be suppressed if it
occurs at the top of a page.