How to I print only non-blank fields in Mail Merge?

[Kathleen]

I am using Word 2003. I have my merged document and data fields. Some data
fields are empty and I do not wish to print those records when the fields are
empty. How can I do that?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Use the SkipIf field to test if an appropriate mergefield is blank. If it
is, that record will be skipped.

--
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, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Lester Lane]

Use the SkipIf field to test if an appropriate mergefield is blank.  Ifit
is, that record will be skipped.

--
Hope this helps.

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

I too have this issue. I don't think the above has answered this. I
don't want to go to the next record, I want the data field to be
skipped or not printed. Eg a London address does not have a County so
the postcode should be "pulled up" to appear under London. I don't
want the next address! Am I right Kathleen?

 

[macropod]

Hi Kathleen,

If you're wanting to skip the whole record when the specified field is empty, the approach suggested by Doug will work.

However, if you're just trying to hide the space taken up by an empty field when it's positioned between two others, you can use an
IF test coded along the lines of:

Empty Space Suppression-
.. duplicate the mailmerge field to be suppressed (eg «MyData») so that you get «MyData»«MyData»;
.. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9 to enclose them in a new field, thus {«MyData»«MyData»};
.. fill in around the new field braces so that you end up with: {IF«MyData»= "" "" "«MyData» "};
.. delete the space after the field.


Empty Line Suppression-
.. duplicate the mailmerge field to be suppressed (eg «MyData») so that you get «MyData»«MyData»;
.. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9 to enclose them in a new field, thus { «MyData»«MyData» };
.. fill in between the braces so that you end up with {IF«myData»= "" "" "«MyData»¶
"}, where the '¶' is a paragraph mark or line-feed, depending on which you're using;
. delete the existing paragraph mark or line-feed after the field.

When you're done with the above:
.. position the cursor anywhere in this field and press F9 to update it;
.. run your mailmerge.

 

[Lester Lane]

Hi Kathleen,

If you're wanting to skip the whole record when the specified field is empty, the approach suggested by Doug will work.

However, if you're just trying to hide the space taken up by an empty field when it's positioned between two others, you can use an
IF test coded along the lines of:

Empty Space Suppression-
. duplicate the mailmerge field to be suppressed (eg «MyData») so that you get «MyData»«MyData»;
. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9 to enclose them in a new field, thus {«MyData»«MyData»};
. fill in around the new field braces so that you end up with: {IF«MyData»= "" "" "«MyData» "};
. delete the space after the field.

Empty Line Suppression-
. duplicate the mailmerge field to be suppressed (eg «MyData») so that you get «MyData»«MyData»;
. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9 to enclose them in a new field, thus { «MyData»«MyData» };
. fill in between the braces so that you end up with {IF«myData»= "" "" "«MyData»¶
  "}, where the '¶' is a paragraph mark or line-feed, depending on which you're using;
 . delete the existing paragraph mark or line-feed after the field.

When you're done with the above:
. position the cursor anywhere in this field and press F9 to update it;
. run your mailmerge.

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]

I am using Word 2003.  I have my merged document and data fields. Somedata
fields are empty and I do not wish to print those records when the fields are
empty. How can I do that?

Kathleen,
I re-read your question in less haste and realise I got the wrong end
of the stick! It is quite clear actually. I have fixed my issue with
an IF statement. Thanks all.

 

[sandra]

Hi! I'm using Office 2007 and I *think* this thread is what I'm trying to do
but I'm not quite sure.

I have an Excel spreadsheet with Name, Organization, Address, City,
Province, Postal Code and I'm trying to make labels from it. However, some
rows do not have anything in the Organization field so when I go to make a
label, I've been having to manually edit the labels to remove that blank
space.

In Office 2000, I seem to recall that there was just a check box where the
blank field would be ignored and it all worked out fine but I'm under the
impression that Office 2007 isn't so simple that way. If the procedure below
is what I need, can someone point me to a more detailed, simple instructions
since I'm not understanding what I'm copying and where I'm CTRL-F9ing....?

Thanks in advance!

sandra

Hi Kathleen,

If you're wanting to skip the whole record when the specified field is empty, the approach suggested by Doug will work.

However, if you're just trying to hide the space taken up by an empty field when it's positioned between two others, you can use an
IF test coded along the lines of:

Empty Space Suppression-
.. duplicate the mailmerge field to be suppressed (eg «MyData») so that you get «MyData»«MyData»;
.. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9 to enclose them in a new field, thus {«MyData»«MyData»};
.. fill in around the new field braces so that you end up with: {IF«MyData»= "" "" "«MyData» "};
.. delete the space after the field.


Empty Line Suppression-
.. duplicate the mailmerge field to be suppressed (eg «MyData») so that you get «MyData»«MyData»;
.. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9 to enclose them in a new field, thus { «MyData»«MyData» };
.. fill in between the braces so that you end up with {IF«myData»= "" "" "«MyData»¶
"}, where the '¶' is a paragraph mark or line-feed, depending on which you're using;
. delete the existing paragraph mark or line-feed after the field.

When you're done with the above:
.. position the cursor anywhere in this field and press F9 to update it;
.. run your mailmerge.


--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]

I am using Word 2003. I have my merged document and data fields. Some data
fields are empty and I do not wish to print those records when the fields are
empty. How can I do that?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I assume that you have the mergefields inserted something like:

<<Name>>
<<Organization>>
<<Address>>
<<City>> <<Province>> <Postal Code>>

Insert additional mergefields so that you have

<<Name>>
<<Organization>><<Organization>><<Address>><<Address>>
<<City>> <<Province>> <Postal Code>>

If you press Alt+F9 to toggle on the field codes and click on the Show/Hide
(¶) button to show formatting marks, you will see

{ MERGEFIELD "Name" }¶
{ MERGEFIELD "Organization" }{ MERGEFIELD "Organization" }{ MERGEFIELD
"Address }{ MERGEFIELD "Address }¶
{ MERGEFIELD "City" } { MERGEFIELD "Province" } { MERGEFIELD "Postal Code" )

Select the second line and press Ctrl+F9 and then you will see:

{ MERGEFIELD "Name" }¶
{ { MERGEFIELD "Organization" }{ MERGEFIELD "Organization" }{ MERGEFIELD
"Address }{ MERGEFIELD "Address } }¶
{ MERGEFIELD "City" } { MERGEFIELD "Province" } { MERGEFIELD "Postal Code" )

Now, modify that so that it looks as follows, pressing the Enter key where
the ¶ appears after { MERGEFIELD "Organization" }

{ MERGEFIELD "Name" }¶
{ IF { MERGEFIELD "Organization" } <> "" "{ MERGEFIELD "Organization" }¶
{ MERGEFIELD "Address }" "{ MERGEFIELD "Address }" }¶
{ MERGEFIELD "City" } { MERGEFIELD "Province" } { MERGEFIELD "Postal Code" )



--
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, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

Hi! I'm using Office 2007 and I *think* this thread is what I'm trying to
do
but I'm not quite sure.

I have an Excel spreadsheet with Name, Organization, Address, City,
Province, Postal Code and I'm trying to make labels from it. However, some
rows do not have anything in the Organization field so when I go to make a
label, I've been having to manually edit the labels to remove that blank
space.

In Office 2000, I seem to recall that there was just a check box where the
blank field would be ignored and it all worked out fine but I'm under the
impression that Office 2007 isn't so simple that way. If the procedure
below
is what I need, can someone point me to a more detailed, simple
instructions
since I'm not understanding what I'm copying and where I'm CTRL-F9ing....?


Thanks in advance!

sandra

Hi Kathleen,

If you're wanting to skip the whole record when the specified field is
empty, the approach suggested by Doug will work.

However, if you're just trying to hide the space taken up by an empty
field when it's positioned between two others, you can use an
IF test coded along the lines of:

Empty Space Suppression-
.. duplicate the mailmerge field to be suppressed (eg «MyData») so that
you get «MyData»«MyData»;
.. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9 to enclose them in a new field,
thus {«MyData»«MyData»};
.. fill in around the new field braces so that you end up with:
{IF«MyData»= "" "" "«MyData» "};
.. delete the space after the field.


Empty Line Suppression-
.. duplicate the mailmerge field to be suppressed (eg «MyData») so that
you get «MyData»«MyData»;
.. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9 to enclose them in a new field,
thus { «MyData»«MyData» };
.. fill in between the braces so that you end up with {IF«myData»= "" ""
"«MyData»¶
"}, where the '¶' is a paragraph mark or line-feed, depending on which
you're using;
. delete the existing paragraph mark or line-feed after the field.

When you're done with the above:
.. position the cursor anywhere in this field and press F9 to update it;
.. run your mailmerge.


--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]

I am using Word 2003. I have my merged document and data fields. Some
data
fields are empty and I do not wish to print those records when the
fields are
empty. How can I do that?

 

[sandra]

<blink>

Wow! That's amazingly convoluted to my mind. Thank you so much for the step
by step instructions as I would never in a million years have puzzled that
out.

I wonder why the process became so complicated when Office 2000 was so very
simple....

sandra

I assume that you have the mergefields inserted something like:

<<Name>>
<<Organization>>
<<Address>>
<<City>> <<Province>> <Postal Code>>

Insert additional mergefields so that you have

<<Name>>
<<Organization>><<Organization>><<Address>><<Address>>
<<City>> <<Province>> <Postal Code>>

If you press Alt+F9 to toggle on the field codes and click on the Show/Hide
(¶) button to show formatting marks, you will see

{ MERGEFIELD "Name" }¶
{ MERGEFIELD "Organization" }{ MERGEFIELD "Organization" }{ MERGEFIELD
"Address }{ MERGEFIELD "Address }¶
{ MERGEFIELD "City" } { MERGEFIELD "Province" } { MERGEFIELD "Postal Code" )

Select the second line and press Ctrl+F9 and then you will see:

{ MERGEFIELD "Name" }¶
{ { MERGEFIELD "Organization" }{ MERGEFIELD "Organization" }{ MERGEFIELD
"Address }{ MERGEFIELD "Address } }¶
{ MERGEFIELD "City" } { MERGEFIELD "Province" } { MERGEFIELD "Postal Code" )

Now, modify that so that it looks as follows, pressing the Enter key where
the ¶ appears after { MERGEFIELD "Organization" }

{ MERGEFIELD "Name" }¶
{ IF { MERGEFIELD "Organization" } <> "" "{ MERGEFIELD "Organization" }¶
{ MERGEFIELD "Address }" "{ MERGEFIELD "Address }" }¶
{ MERGEFIELD "City" } { MERGEFIELD "Province" } { MERGEFIELD "Postal Code" )



--
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, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

Hi! I'm using Office 2007 and I *think* this thread is what I'm trying to
do
but I'm not quite sure.

I have an Excel spreadsheet with Name, Organization, Address, City,
Province, Postal Code and I'm trying to make labels from it. However, some
rows do not have anything in the Organization field so when I go to make a
label, I've been having to manually edit the labels to remove that blank
space.

In Office 2000, I seem to recall that there was just a check box where the
blank field would be ignored and it all worked out fine but I'm under the
impression that Office 2007 isn't so simple that way. If the procedure
below
is what I need, can someone point me to a more detailed, simple
instructions
since I'm not understanding what I'm copying and where I'm CTRL-F9ing....?


Thanks in advance!

sandra

Hi Kathleen,

If you're wanting to skip the whole record when the specified field is
empty, the approach suggested by Doug will work.

However, if you're just trying to hide the space taken up by an empty
field when it's positioned between two others, you can use an
IF test coded along the lines of:

Empty Space Suppression-
.. duplicate the mailmerge field to be suppressed (eg «MyData») so that
you get «MyData»«MyData»;
.. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9 to enclose them in a new field,
thus {«MyData»«MyData»};
.. fill in around the new field braces so that you end up with:
{IF«MyData»= "" "" "«MyData» "};
.. delete the space after the field.


Empty Line Suppression-
.. duplicate the mailmerge field to be suppressed (eg «MyData») so that
you get «MyData»«MyData»;
.. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9 to enclose them in a new field,
thus { «MyData»«MyData» };
.. fill in between the braces so that you end up with {IF«myData»= "" ""
"«MyData»¶
"}, where the '¶' is a paragraph mark or line-feed, depending on which
you're using;
. delete the existing paragraph mark or line-feed after the field.

When you're done with the above:
.. position the cursor anywhere in this field and press F9 to update it;
.. run your mailmerge.


--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]


I am using Word 2003. I have my merged document and data fields. Some
data
fields are empty and I do not wish to print those records when the
fields are
empty. How can I do that?