Deleting blank lines in mail merge doc

Yes, I have 100 rows of data in two colums. However my data source is
another word document with the merge data in 50 rows and 4 columns. I
created the merge main document but the data sources is created by an
external program running on an ERP. This program creats the data source
automatically based on is calucations and then looks for the main document
in order to merge the data.
I want to produce a document, that contains only records with data. The data
should be arranged in the the two column format of the merge fields.

Most of the time I create one document at a time and occassionaly several
ones, up to 100, at a time.

The mail merge works fine but replaces empty fields with blank lines. I need
these blank lines supressed automatically after the merge is done as
described in the article I quoted in my previous email..

Thanks,


"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" a écrit dans le message
de news: ...
I think what you are saying is that you have 100 rows of data in two
columns. Which means that you have a data source containing two fields
with 100 records. I also understand that not all of the records contain
data and that you want to produce a document that contains only the records
that two contain data, though I am not sure how you want that data
arranged. Is it to be displayed in two columns?

In my first response to this thread, I asked "How many documents at a time
are you creating from this data source?" Can you please answer this
question as depending upon the answer, mail merge may not be the
application that you should be using.

--
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

"Tapiwa Jongwe" wrote in message
...
I have 200 fields in two columns of 100 fields. I would like to do what is
explained in
Article ID: 264722 - Last Review: December 6, 2000 - Revision: 1.0
entitled "WD2000: How to Suppress Blank Lines During a Mail Merge"

Here's some text from the article which pertains to Word 2000:

"Frequently, in mail merges that involve addresses, there is a second
line for the street address. This second line is normally used for a
suite or apartment number. In order to close the "gap" in the address
when no data exists for that merge field, make sure you do not place any
spaces, punctuation, or anything else except merge fields on that second
line. If there is anything else on that line, that line appears in all
merges.

NOTE: Each line must end with a paragraph mark (¶) in order for Word to
suppress the line, if the result of the MERGEFIELDS is blank. If the line
ends with a New Line character, Word is unable to suppress a blank line.

The mail merge feature evaluates each line as the merge is performed. If
there is any text on the line, that line appears in the merge result. If
there is no text on the line, but there is a merge field, the mail merge
feature checks to see whether there is any data for the merge field. If
there is no data for the merge field, that line is not created in the
merge result."





"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" a écrit dans le
message de news: ...
I am sorry, but I really do not understand how the use of a hard carriage
return would be achieving what you want.

How many fields are their in your data source?

--
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

"Tapiwa Jongwe" wrote in message
...
I have a word template stmt.dot containing salary informaion in two
columns in form of merge fields. The first column has labels (label1,
lbel2, label3,...labeln) and the second one has corresponding amounts
(amount1, amount2, amount3,.....amountn) I have just over 100 lines,
each with a corresponding label and amount. However for each stmt.dot
printed not all the merge fields are used. On average I use about 10
lines (10 labels fields and 10 amount fields), not necessarily
consecutive, in the template and the rest appear as blank lines which I
want to supress.

I have realines that ending each line by a paragraph mark will suppress
the baln merge files when I prin my template. I have manually added the
paragraph marks after a few lines and they seem to work. Now, when I
add the rest of the marks, the stsmt.dot does not retain them and
therefore I end up with a merged document of about two pages but with
only 10 lines filed in and spread over the two pages. I want the 10
lines to be only on one page and the rest of the empty fields to be
supressed. I do not mind inserting the paragraph marks manually but the
template does not keep them. That's why I thought there should be a way
to do it automatically and not loose the marks.

Thanks in advance for your help



"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" a écrit dans le
message de news: ...
Your solution appears to be unrelated to the issue as you originally
described it.

It would probably be possible to use a macro to insert the carriage
returns, but you would have to give us more information on what you
are starting with to be able to provide some suggest 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

"Tapiwa Jongwe" wrote in message
...
Hello there,

I found an easier way. Adding a paragraph markat the end of each line
will do the trick.

However when I edit my Word template to include the paragraph marks
and saving it, it does not keep them. How do I go about it and, aslo,
is there a way of automatically insterting the paragrapgh marks as I
have about a 100 lines if merge fields and would not like to edit
them one by one.

"macropod" a écrit dans le message de
news: ...
Hi Tapiwa Jongwe,

The usual way to suppress blank lines in a mailmerge is to apply an
IF test to the mergefields that might sometimes be empty. The way to
do this in Word is to-
. duplicate the mailmerge field to be suppressed (eg «MyData») so
that you get:
«MyData»«MyData»;
. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9, you'll get:
{ «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 that's outside the
mergefield;
. position the cursor anywhere in this field and press F9 to update
it;
. run your mailmerge.


--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]


"Tapiwa Jongwe" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have a mail merge document of about six pages whose data source
is another word doc.

However, not all the merge fields contain data at any given time.
Sometimes I have two fields on page one with data and one files on
page six with data. When I merge this info, I have five pages blank
in between. How can I automatically delete these blank lines each i
do the merge?

Thanks in advance.

I guess we have a language problem.

Your data source contains 50 rows in 4 columns and as I understand it, you
want to produce a document with the data arranged in two columns.

In your data source (the document with the 4 columns), is the information in
the first row the names of the fields or is it a row of data like any of the
other rows.

What columns in the data source (the document with 4 columns) contain the
data that you want to appear in the two column document that you want to
produce?

Is there always data in each of the 50 rows of the data source document (the
document with 4 columns), or are there empty rows followed by more data.?

It would seem to me that depending upon your answers to the above question,
you can probably achieve what you want with a catalog or directory type mail
merge.

--
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

"Tapiwa Jongwe" wrote in message
...
Yes, I have 100 rows of data in two colums. However my data source is
another word document with the merge data in 50 rows and 4 columns. I
created the merge main document but the data sources is created by an
external program running on an ERP. This program creats the data source
automatically based on is calucations and then looks for the main document
in order to merge the data.
I want to produce a document, that contains only records with data. The
data should be arranged in the the two column format of the merge fields.

Most of the time I create one document at a time and occassionaly several
ones, up to 100, at a time.

The mail merge works fine but replaces empty fields with blank lines. I
need these blank lines supressed automatically after the merge is done as
described in the article I quoted in my previous email..

Thanks,


"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" a écrit dans le message
de news: ...
I think what you are saying is that you have 100 rows of data in two
columns. Which means that you have a data source containing two fields
with 100 records. I also understand that not all of the records contain
data and that you want to produce a document that contains only the
records that two contain data, though I am not sure how you want that data
arranged. Is it to be displayed in two columns?

In my first response to this thread, I asked "How many documents at a
time are you creating from this data source?" Can you please answer this
question as depending upon the answer, mail merge may not be the
application that you should be using.

--
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

"Tapiwa Jongwe" wrote in message
...
I have 200 fields in two columns of 100 fields. I would like to do what
is explained in
Article ID: 264722 - Last Review: December 6, 2000 - Revision: 1.0
entitled "WD2000: How to Suppress Blank Lines During a Mail Merge"

Here's some text from the article which pertains to Word 2000:

"Frequently, in mail merges that involve addresses, there is a second
line for the street address. This second line is normally used for a
suite or apartment number. In order to close the "gap" in the address
when no data exists for that merge field, make sure you do not place any
spaces, punctuation, or anything else except merge fields on that second
line. If there is anything else on that line, that line appears in all
merges.

NOTE: Each line must end with a paragraph mark (¶) in order for Word to
suppress the line, if the result of the MERGEFIELDS is blank. If the
line ends with a New Line character, Word is unable to suppress a blank
line.

The mail merge feature evaluates each line as the merge is performed. If
there is any text on the line, that line appears in the merge result. If
there is no text on the line, but there is a merge field, the mail merge
feature checks to see whether there is any data for the merge field. If
there is no data for the merge field, that line is not created in the
merge result."





"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" a écrit dans le
message de news: ...
I am sorry, but I really do not understand how the use of a hard
carriage return would be achieving what you want.

How many fields are their in your data source?

--
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

"Tapiwa Jongwe" wrote in message
...
I have a word template stmt.dot containing salary informaion in two
columns in form of merge fields. The first column has labels (label1,
lbel2, label3,...labeln) and the second one has corresponding amounts
(amount1, amount2, amount3,.....amountn) I have just over 100 lines,
each with a corresponding label and amount. However for each stmt.dot
printed not all the merge fields are used. On average I use about 10
lines (10 labels fields and 10 amount fields), not necessarily
consecutive, in the template and the rest appear as blank lines which I
want to supress.

I have realines that ending each line by a paragraph mark will
suppress the baln merge files when I prin my template. I have manually
added the paragraph marks after a few lines and they seem to work.
Now, when I add the rest of the marks, the stsmt.dot does not retain
them and therefore I end up with a merged document of about two pages
but with only 10 lines filed in and spread over the two pages. I want
the 10 lines to be only on one page and the rest of the empty fields
to be supressed. I do not mind inserting the paragraph marks manually
but the template does not keep them. That's why I thought there should
be a way to do it automatically and not loose the marks.

Thanks in advance for your help



"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" a écrit dans le
message de news: ...
Your solution appears to be unrelated to the issue as you originally
described it.

It would probably be possible to use a macro to insert the carriage
returns, but you would have to give us more information on what you
are starting with to be able to provide some suggest 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

"Tapiwa Jongwe" wrote in message
...
Hello there,

I found an easier way. Adding a paragraph markat the end of each
line will do the trick.

However when I edit my Word template to include the paragraph marks
and saving it, it does not keep them. How do I go about it and,
aslo, is there a way of automatically insterting the paragrapgh
marks as I have about a 100 lines if merge fields and would not like
to edit them one by one.

"macropod" a écrit dans le message de
news: ...
Hi Tapiwa Jongwe,

The usual way to suppress blank lines in a mailmerge is to apply an
IF test to the mergefields that might sometimes be empty. The way
to do this in Word is to-
. duplicate the mailmerge field to be suppressed (eg «MyData») so
that you get:
«MyData»«MyData»;
. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9, you'll get:
{ «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 that's outside
the mergefield;
. position the cursor anywhere in this field and press F9 to update
it;
. run your mailmerge.


--
Cheers
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]


"Tapiwa Jongwe" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have a mail merge document of about six pages whose data source
is another word doc.

However, not all the merge fields contain data at any given time.
Sometimes I have two fields on page one with data and one files on
page six with data. When I merge this info, I have five pages
blank in between. How can I automatically delete these blank lines
each i do the merge?

Thanks in advance.