IF Statements in Mail Merge

I am having difficulties with creating an If statement within a Mail Merge
document. I have looked at a number of threads to find out how to construct
the statement and a number of articles on the web but still I cannot generate
the correct response. I am trying to extract information from Excel. If the
Excel cell = "NoInfo" then the Word field should be " " otherwise merge the
field from Excel into Word. I seem to be having problems with the spacing in
my statements, but whenever I have followed the examples my statement does
not work. I have tried both inserting a field and typing the statement &
then Ctrl F9, but still no success. I have tried numerous combinations of
spacing according to the examples but to no avail.
Can anyone help?
IF {MERGEFIELDBOAT_NAME1} = "NoInfo" " "{ MERGEFIELD BOAT_NAME1 }"

The field construction that you need is

{ IF {MERGEFIELDBOAT_NAME1} = "NoInfo" "" "{ MERGEFIELD BOAT_NAME1 }" }

However, the quote marks around the second {MERGEFIELDBOAT_NAME1} are not
essential and you could just use

{ IF {MERGEFIELDBOAT_NAME1} = "NoInfo" "" { MERGEFIELD BOAT_NAME1 } }

However ALL of the field delimiters { } must be inserted by using Ctrl+F9

--
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

"Lurkette" wrote in message
...
I am having difficulties with creating an If statement within a Mail Merge
document. I have looked at a number of threads to find out how to
construct
the statement and a number of articles on the web but still I cannot
generate
the correct response. I am trying to extract information from Excel. If
the
Excel cell = "NoInfo" then the Word field should be " " otherwise merge
the
field from Excel into Word. I seem to be having problems with the spacing
in
my statements, but whenever I have followed the examples my statement does
not work. I have tried both inserting a field and typing the statement &
then Ctrl F9, but still no success. I have tried numerous combinations of
spacing according to the examples but to no avail.
Can anyone help?
IF {MERGEFIELDBOAT_NAME1} = "NoInfo" " "{ MERGEFIELD BOAT_NAME1 }"

Hi Lurkette,

Try this approach:
.. duplicate the mailmerge field to be tested (ie «Boat_Name1») so that you get «Boat_Name1»«Boat_Name1»;
.. select both fields and Press Ctrl-F9 to enclose them in a new field, thus {«Boat_Name1»«Boat_Name1»};
.. fill in around the new field braces so that you end up with: {IF«Boat_Name1» "" «Boat_Name1»};
.. position the cursor anywhere in this field and press F9 to update it;
.. run your mailmerge.

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]


"Lurkette" wrote in message ...
I am having difficulties with creating an If statement within a Mail Merge
document. I have looked at a number of threads to find out how to construct
the statement and a number of articles on the web but still I cannot generate
the correct response. I am trying to extract information from Excel. If the
Excel cell = "NoInfo" then the Word field should be " " otherwise merge the
field from Excel into Word. I seem to be having problems with the spacing in
my statements, but whenever I have followed the examples my statement does
not work. I have tried both inserting a field and typing the statement &
then Ctrl F9, but still no success. I have tried numerous combinations of
spacing according to the examples but to no avail.
Can anyone help?
IF {MERGEFIELDBOAT_NAME1} = "NoInfo" " "{ MERGEFIELD BOAT_NAME1 }"