Merging 5-20 fields into 2 columns

M

Montine

From what I've read in this forum on controlling blank table rows
within Word merges, I know this isn't a new problem. I've got from
5-20 brief fields that the user wants to merge (in the middle of a
letter) into a 2 column list. The fields are arriving in the merge
via bookmarks (long story). Anyway, my dilemma is getting rid of the
extra rows. Usually, only 5-10 items print in each record.

I know VBA could delete empty rows, but I don't want to go there. So
I've tried using tabs. I set two tabs, for my two columns. Fine.
But when I merge the bookmarked text into the letter, the tabs (midway
through my list) revert to the defaults (every 1/2 inch) -- so the
columns bounce all over the place. Am I missing something obvious
when it comes to carrying over the formatting from the bookmarked
document into the letter?

Or do you all have any suggestions of some other strategy I could use?
'Appreciate your help.

--Montine
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Montine,

I'm having trouble picturing what you're doing. I don't follow "The
fields are arrivign in the merge via bookmarks." It may be a long story,
but without understanding your setup...

Also, which version of Word is involved?

And what's the data source?

From the sound of it, what you ought to have is a one-to-many setup in a
relational database...
From what I've read in this forum on controlling blank table rows
within Word merges, I know this isn't a new problem. I've got from
5-20 brief fields that the user wants to merge (in the middle of a
letter) into a 2 column list. The fields are arriving in the merge
via bookmarks (long story). Anyway, my dilemma is getting rid of the
extra rows. Usually, only 5-10 items print in each record.

I know VBA could delete empty rows, but I don't want to go there. So
I've tried using tabs. I set two tabs, for my two columns. Fine.
But when I merge the bookmarked text into the letter, the tabs (midway
through my list) revert to the defaults (every 1/2 inch) -- so the
columns bounce all over the place. Am I missing something obvious
when it comes to carrying over the formatting from the bookmarked
document into the letter?

Or do you all have any suggestions of some other strategy I could use?
Click to expand...

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question
or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :)
 
M

Montine

Hi Cindy. Thanks for your help on this one.

This merge is the result of a daily dump of data from an AS/400 to a
..csv (or .xls) file. That resulting file is the source document for
the merge. I'm using Office 2000. There are 20 fields (ENC1 - ENC20)
that I'm having trouble merging properly. I erred --bookmarks are not
being used with these fields.

The merged data is brief ("flight information", "scuba diving", etc).
While there are 20 possible fields of data, only 3-8 are usually
populated.

The kicker is that I need to merge these fields into a two column
list.

I've handled the merge codes this way. (And please tell me if this is
a stupid approach: {IF {MERGEFIELD ENC1} <> "" "- {MERGEFIELD ENC1}"
""}. That returns my data just fine. It's this two column formatting
(without extra trailing empty lines) that's confounding me.

Merging to a table works great -- but I end up with empty rows at the
end. I've also tried using tabs (setting specific tabs for the first
and second column, rather than going with the every-half-inch
defaults) -- but when it merges, somewhere midday down my list, my
"placed" tabs disappear and the list reverts to default tabs, throwing
the columns horribly off.

I feel certain there's a solution here. I just need this letter to
have a paragraph, then this two-column list of merged ENC data, and
then another paragraph, with no extra lines in evidence.

'Appreciate your time, and any clues you can provide.

Thanks,

--Montine
 
M

Montine

Hi again. In my response, I forgot to clarify. The way this data
comes off the /400, the ENC fields always populate "from the top" --
meaning, if only 8 of 20 fields are filled with data, then it's ENC1
through ENC8 that will be populated. If three fields have data, then
it's ENC1 through ENC3.

It's because of that oddity that the table solution works so well --
all empty lines are always at the bottom.

Anyway, thanks again for considering this.

--Montine
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Montine,

Given what you have to work with, try selecting all the IF statements,
plus a paragraph before and following them. Go to Format/Columns and set
the number of columns to 2. Test the merge.

Note that you may want to put the ¶ (where you press ENTER to create a
new line) WITHIN the quotes in the IF field, so that new lines are only
generated when the field evaluates to true. Roughly:

This merge is the result of a daily dump of data from an AS/400 to a
..csv (or .xls) file. That resulting file is the source document for
the merge. I'm using Office 2000. There are 20 fields (ENC1 - ENC20)
that I'm having trouble merging properly. I erred --bookmarks are not
being used with these fields.

The merged data is brief ("flight information", "scuba diving", etc).
While there are 20 possible fields of data, only 3-8 are usually
populated.

The kicker is that I need to merge these fields into a two column
list.

I've handled the merge codes this way. (And please tell me if this is
a stupid approach: {IF {MERGEFIELD ENC1} <> "" "- {MERGEFIELD ENC1}"
""}. That returns my data just fine. It's this two column formatting
(without extra trailing empty lines) that's confounding me.

Merging to a table works great -- but I end up with empty rows at the
end. I've also tried using tabs (setting specific tabs for the first
and second column, rather than going with the every-half-inch
defaults) -- but when it merges, somewhere midday down my list, my
"placed" tabs disappear and the list reverts to default tabs, throwing
the columns horribly off.

I feel certain there's a solution here. I just need this letter to
have a paragraph, then this two-column list of merged ENC data, and
then another paragraph, with no extra lines in evidence.

'Appreciate your time, and any clues you can provide.
Click to expand...

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question
or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :)
 
M

Montine

Interestingly, I did try the newspaper column route. And it would
have worked beautifully, except that the continuous section break that
I inserted after the two column ENC fields (all the paragraphs must be
normal 1 col) changed to a full page break after the merge. Felt like
I ran into a bug in Word2000, as it made no sense.

I also tried your repositioning of the hard return -- but think I
fouled up my merge by doing so. Will go try that again, given the
confirmation of your syntax. Thanks for all.

--Montine
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Montine,
Interestingly, I did try the newspaper column route. And it would
have worked beautifully, except that the continuous section break that
I inserted after the two column ENC fields (all the paragraphs must be
normal 1 col) changed to a full page break after the merge. Felt like
I ran into a bug in Word2000, as it made no sense.
Click to expand...
Possible; Word 2000 was a bit unstable in that regard. Check in
File/Page Setup/Layout that "new section break" is set to be continuous
rather than new page. Sometimes that helps.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question
or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :)
 
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