editing feilds

[********Meg]

I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to
include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that
the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that
particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003)

However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the
actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics)
When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge,
all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the
data source document , it looses it's formatting as well.

any ideas?

thanks

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I guess that in the first part of your post you are referring to the use of
an If...then...Else field construction. While you can use a \* charformat
switch to control the appearance of the result of a field by apply the
formatting to the first letter of the field construction, that format will
be applied to the whole of the field and you cannot have half of it one way
and half another way.

If my assumption of the If...then...Else fields is correct, you may be able
to use multiple fields (not nested) to control and format the text before
the merge field itself, the format of the merge field itself and the format
of the text that comes after the merge field.

--
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

 

[Microsoft Public Groups]

Assuming you are using

{ MERGEFIELD myfield \b "beforetext: " }

I don't think you can achieve the formatting you need using that technique
(even replacing "beforetext" by "{ QUOTE beforetext: \*Charformat } and
formatting the Q the way you want does not work).

Instead, try

{ IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = "" "" "beforetext:: { MERGEFIELD
myfield\*Charformat }" }

then format beforetext: the way you want it and format the M of the second
MERGEFIELD the way you want it.

Ensure all the {} are ht especial field code braces you can insert using
ctrl-F9

Peter Jamieson

 

[********Meg]

If my assumption of the If...then...Else fields is correct, you may be able

to use multiple fields (not nested) to control and format the text before
the merge field itself, the format of the merge field itself and the
format of the text that comes after the merge field

how would I do that?

--
Meg Darnell, LMT
Director of Alumni Services
Swedish Institute College of Health Sciences
212-924-5900 x142
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" -
MLK

I guess that in the first part of your post you are referring to the use of
an If...then...Else field construction. While you can use a \* charformat
switch to control the appearance of the result of a field by apply the
formatting to the first letter of the field construction, that format will
be applied to the whole of the field and you cannot have half of it one way
and half another way.

.

--
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

 

[********Meg]

thanks, I think I understand what you are saying, but I'm not clear in how
to do the formatting. This is VERY new for me.

here is what I have
{mergefeild Required Reading\b "required reading:'}

I want the text Required Reading (which is the text that will appear if
there is anything in the field ) to be bold and the content of the field to
be italics (i.e., it's a book title so it should be).

Ex:
Required Reading (in bold): How to use excel, by So and So (in italics)

thanks for your help, if this can work. it would be GREAT!


Meg

Assuming you are using

{ MERGEFIELD myfield \b "beforetext: " }

I don't think you can achieve the formatting you need using that technique
(even replacing "beforetext" by "{ QUOTE beforetext: \*Charformat } and
formatting the Q the way you want does not work).

Instead, try

{ IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = "" "" "beforetext:: { MERGEFIELD
myfield\*Charformat }" }

then format beforetext: the way you want it and format the M of the second
MERGEFIELD the way you want it.

Ensure all the {} are ht especial field code braces you can insert using
ctrl-F9

Peter Jamieson

 

[Graham Mayor]

Replace what you have with

{ IF{ MERGEFIELD RequiredReading } <> "" "Required Reading: { Mergefield
RequiredReading }"}

Use CTRL+F9 for each set of field brackets and type the rest. Format
"Required Reading:" as bold font and the
final { Mergefield RequiredReading }as italic.


--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[********Meg]

Are those quotes or some other symbol? Am I inserting the field or typing
it in. When I insert it, comes with quotes

--
Meg Darnell, LMT
Director of Alumni Services
Swedish Institute College of Health Sciences
212-924-5900 x142
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" -
MLK

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Just to spell it out as best I can:

The text within these field codes is ordinary text (although the special ()
are not) - once you can see it (use Alt-F9 to "toggle" between "view field
codes" and "view field results") you can select and format it just as you
would format ordinary text in a Word document.

However, every field code does something different, and in some cases the
field code will discard your formatting, which is why the formatting does
not work within a { MERGEFIELD } field. It does, however work (broadly
speaking) when you format the "result text" of an IF field.

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

thanks, I think I understand what you are saying, but I'm not clear in how
to do the formatting. This is VERY new for me.

here is what I have
{mergefeild Required Reading\b "required reading:'}

I want the text Required Reading (which is the text that will appear if
there is anything in the field ) to be bold and the content of the field
to be italics (i.e., it's a book title so it should be).

Ex:
Required Reading (in bold): How to use excel, by So and So (in italics)

thanks for your help, if this can work. it would be GREAT!


Meg

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Insert each pair of special field braces {} using ctrl-F9. Everything else
is ordinary text. Format the various parts of the result text the way you
want.

(The layout of an IF field is basically

{ IF condition "result text if condition is true" "result text if condition
is false" }

e.g., to give a contrived example,

{ IF 1 = 1 "you should always get the true result text" "and never this
false result text" }

 

[********Meg]

I understand what you are saying for the most part.
Confusion lies in saying
so what I am trying to say is "

If this field is not blank, then put in the field (in italics) and put "this
text" before the field (in bold)

I'm just not getting this formatting down. right.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Don't insert the fields - type them in, using CTRL+F9 for each pair of
brackets.
Finally update the field F9.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Let's say you have entered the ctrl-F9 braces and all the text you want and
you have soemthing that looks like this (use Alt-F9 to show all the text in
all the fields).

{ IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = "" "" "beforetext:: { MERGEFIELD
myfield \*Charformat }" }

Then you can select the text

"beforetext: "

and make it bold in exactly the same way that you would make ordinary text
bold (e.g. click the B button on the formatting toolbar).

Then select the entire { MERGEFIELD myfield \*Charformat } field, and make
it italic in the same way that you would make ordinary text italic.

 

[********Meg]

Well, I think I got it, thanks to all of you guys and some help from a
friend. The difficult thing here is that I don't know where to get the
actual coding...but playing around a bit I learned that word, actually gives
you an area to go and say, if this is that then this........

All of that, plus the understanding that I got from this forum gave me the
help I needed.

Thank you.

the help screens leave a lot to be desired.

 

[Graham Mayor]

You don't need to get 'actual coding' from anywhere. You type it in using
CTRL+F9 for the brackets {}and the keyboard for the rest!

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>