adding a carriage return in the "Text to be inserted before" section

Is there a way to add a return character before a field using the
field codes with "Text to be inserted before"? For example:

{MERGEFIELD "Name"}
{MERGEFIELD "Address"}
{MERGEFIELD "CityStateZip"}
{MERGEFIELD "Email"}
{MERGEFIELD "Phone"}

but i want the results to be like the follwing if all fields are
populated:

Name
Address
CityStateZip
---- note there is a
carraige return
Email
---- note there is a
carraige return
Phone

If i change the Email to:
{MERGEFIELD "Email" \b "something"}

the result will be

somethingEmail --- if an email exists...

So instead of "Something" is there some character combination i can
put so that it will put a carriage return instead?

Or do i have to use a really complicated if/then statement?

Any help greatly apprecaited!

Hi Michelle,

In Word:
.. format the paragraph containing the «Email» field with the appropriate leading/trailing space instead of padding out the space
with unnecessary carriage returns; and
.. choose the 'don't print blank lines' merge option.

Alternatively:
.. duplicate the «Email» field, so that you get «Email»«Email»;
.. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9 to enclose them in a new field, thus { «Email»«Email» };
.. fill in between the braces so that you end up with {IF«Email»= "" "" "«Email»¶
"}, 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;
.. position the cursor anywhere in this field and press F9 to update it;
.. run your mailmerge.

Not all that complicated, really.

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]


"MichelleChumash" wrote in message ...
Is there a way to add a return character before a field using the
field codes with "Text to be inserted before"? For example:

{MERGEFIELD "Name"}
{MERGEFIELD "Address"}
{MERGEFIELD "CityStateZip"}
{MERGEFIELD "Email"}
{MERGEFIELD "Phone"}

but i want the results to be like the follwing if all fields are
populated:

Name
Address
CityStateZip
---- note there is a
carraige return
Email
---- note there is a
carraige return
Phone

If i change the Email to:
{MERGEFIELD "Email" \b "something"}

the result will be

somethingEmail --- if an email exists...

So instead of "Something" is there some character combination i can
put so that it will put a carriage return instead?

Or do i have to use a really complicated if/then statement?

Any help greatly apprecaited!

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I think i'll go with the
paragraph formatting of that line, but that second suggestion is very
interesting as well. Of course putting ^p would be so much easier
But I guess we cant' do that.

Thanks again!!!

With Word you generally put an actual paragraph mark in this kind of
scenario, rather than using standard find/replace sequences. It doesn't
quite work in this case because of an interaction with Word's handling
of blank lines in merges (I think) but you might be able to do something
based on

{MERGEFIELD "Name"}
{MERGEFIELD "Address"}
{MERGEFIELD "CityStateZip"}
{MERGEFIELD "Email" \b "
"}{MERGEFIELD "Phone" \b "
"}

where \b "
"

means

\b "press enter to insert a paragraph mark put a paragraph mark here"

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

MichelleChumash wrote:
Thank you so much for your suggestions. I think i'll go with the
paragraph formatting of that line, but that second suggestion is very
interesting as well. Of course putting ^p would be so much easier
But I guess we cant' do that.

Thanks again!!!