Thank you Cindy. I very much appreciate the specific how to.

I know what you are asking me to do is simple, but for some reason it is not
working, or I am not properly executing.

The If...Then...Else box asks for the field name of which I chose the
"client middle name" field. For the "Comparison box" I chose "is blank" and
the "compare to" box I left blank.
There are two other box choices "insert this text" and "otherwise insert
this text"

Where exactly is the "space" to be typed for the false answer choice?

I played a bit with the If...Then...Else box and the info you supplied and
still get the "empty" space between "client first name" and "client last
name" fields when the "client middle name" is blank and merge executed to a
new document.

I am missing something really simple here.

Thank you in advance for your help,

John R.


"Cindy M -WordMVP-" wrote:

Hi ?B?Sm9obg==?=,

I am using Office 2000 with XP operating system.

I could hug you for giving us this information, right at the top :-)

You need to incorporate an IF field in the main merge document. The IF field
will test whether the mergefield is passing a zero-length string, and insert
nothing, or a space, accordingly.

This type of IF is very easy to set up. On the mail merge toolbar you'll see a
button labelled "Insert Word field". Click that and choose the
"If...Then...Else" entry (or something similar, I don't recall the exact
caption).

You should see a dialog box where you can select the mergefield you want to
test, the value to test against ("is blank"), a box for the "true" result (leave
it empty) and a box for the false result (type a space).

I have a database (excel) and form files (word) set up.

The merge codes in question are "client first name" "client middle initial"
and "client last name"

My problem is that some of the "client middle initial" files/records are
blank and therefore leave an empy space between "client first name" and
"client last name" in my letter after the merge process has taken place. I
want to have that space automatically closed during the merge process if that
"client middle initial" file is blank. If the "client middle initial" file
has information contained within it, then I want to, of course, have that
information placed in the document when merging.

How do I accomplish this?


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 :-)