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#1
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editing feilds
I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to
include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
#2
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editing feilds
I guess that in the first part of your post you are referring to the use of
an If...then...Else field construction. While you can use a \* charformat switch to control the appearance of the result of a field by apply the formatting to the first letter of the field construction, that format will be applied to the whole of the field and you cannot have half of it one way and half another way. If my assumption of the If...then...Else fields is correct, you may be able to use multiple fields (not nested) to control and format the text before the merge field itself, the format of the merge field itself and the format of the text that comes after the merge field. -- 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 "********Meg" wrote in message ... I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
#3
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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editing feilds
Assuming you are using
{ MERGEFIELD myfield \b "beforetext: " } I don't think you can achieve the formatting you need using that technique (even replacing "beforetext" by "{ QUOTE beforetext: \*Charformat } and formatting the Q the way you want does not work). Instead, try { IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = "" "" "beforetext:: { MERGEFIELD myfield\*Charformat }" } then format beforetext: the way you want it and format the M of the second MERGEFIELD the way you want it. Ensure all the {} are ht especial field code braces you can insert using ctrl-F9 Peter Jamieson "********Meg" wrote in message ... I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
#4
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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editing feilds
If my assumption of the If...then...Else fields is correct, you may be able
to use multiple fields (not nested) to control and format the text before the merge field itself, the format of the merge field itself and the format of the text that comes after the merge field how would I do that? -- Meg Darnell, LMT Director of Alumni Services Swedish Institute College of Health Sciences 212-924-5900 x142 "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" - MLK "Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote in message ... I guess that in the first part of your post you are referring to the use of an If...then...Else field construction. While you can use a \* charformat switch to control the appearance of the result of a field by apply the formatting to the first letter of the field construction, that format will be applied to the whole of the field and you cannot have half of it one way and half another way. . -- 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 "********Meg" wrote in message ... I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
#5
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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editing feilds
thanks, I think I understand what you are saying, but I'm not clear in how
to do the formatting. This is VERY new for me. here is what I have {mergefeild Required Reading\b "required reading:'} I want the text Required Reading (which is the text that will appear if there is anything in the field ) to be bold and the content of the field to be italics (i.e., it's a book title so it should be). Ex: Required Reading (in bold): How to use excel, by So and So (in italics) thanks for your help, if this can work. it would be GREAT! Meg "Microsoft Public Groups" wrote in message ... Assuming you are using { MERGEFIELD myfield \b "beforetext: " } I don't think you can achieve the formatting you need using that technique (even replacing "beforetext" by "{ QUOTE beforetext: \*Charformat } and formatting the Q the way you want does not work). Instead, try { IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = "" "" "beforetext:: { MERGEFIELD myfield\*Charformat }" } then format beforetext: the way you want it and format the M of the second MERGEFIELD the way you want it. Ensure all the {} are ht especial field code braces you can insert using ctrl-F9 Peter Jamieson "********Meg" wrote in message ... I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
#6
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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editing feilds
Replace what you have with
{ IF{ MERGEFIELD RequiredReading } "" "Required Reading: { Mergefield RequiredReading }"} Use CTRL+F9 for each set of field brackets and type the rest. Format "Required Reading:" as bold font and the final { Mergefield RequiredReading }as italic. -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org ********Meg wrote: thanks, I think I understand what you are saying, but I'm not clear in how to do the formatting. This is VERY new for me. here is what I have {mergefeild Required Reading\b "required reading:'} I want the text Required Reading (which is the text that will appear if there is anything in the field ) to be bold and the content of the field to be italics (i.e., it's a book title so it should be). Ex: Required Reading (in bold): How to use excel, by So and So (in italics) thanks for your help, if this can work. it would be GREAT! Meg "Microsoft Public Groups" wrote in message ... Assuming you are using { MERGEFIELD myfield \b "beforetext: " } I don't think you can achieve the formatting you need using that technique (even replacing "beforetext" by "{ QUOTE beforetext: \*Charformat } and formatting the Q the way you want does not work). Instead, try { IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = "" "" "beforetext:: { MERGEFIELD myfield\*Charformat }" } then format beforetext: the way you want it and format the M of the second MERGEFIELD the way you want it. Ensure all the {} are ht especial field code braces you can insert using ctrl-F9 Peter Jamieson "********Meg" wrote in message ... I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
#7
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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editing feilds
Are those quotes or some other symbol? Am I inserting the field or typing
it in. When I insert it, comes with quotes -- Meg Darnell, LMT Director of Alumni Services Swedish Institute College of Health Sciences 212-924-5900 x142 "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" - MLK "Graham Mayor" wrote in message ... Replace what you have with { IF{ MERGEFIELD RequiredReading } "" "Required Reading: { Mergefield RequiredReading }"} Use CTRL+F9 for each set of field brackets and type the rest. Format "Required Reading:" as bold font and the final { Mergefield RequiredReading }as italic. -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org ********Meg wrote: thanks, I think I understand what you are saying, but I'm not clear in how to do the formatting. This is VERY new for me. here is what I have {mergefeild Required Reading\b "required reading:'} I want the text Required Reading (which is the text that will appear if there is anything in the field ) to be bold and the content of the field to be italics (i.e., it's a book title so it should be). Ex: Required Reading (in bold): How to use excel, by So and So (in italics) thanks for your help, if this can work. it would be GREAT! Meg "Microsoft Public Groups" wrote in message ... Assuming you are using { MERGEFIELD myfield \b "beforetext: " } I don't think you can achieve the formatting you need using that technique (even replacing "beforetext" by "{ QUOTE beforetext: \*Charformat } and formatting the Q the way you want does not work). Instead, try { IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = "" "" "beforetext:: { MERGEFIELD myfield\*Charformat }" } then format beforetext: the way you want it and format the M of the second MERGEFIELD the way you want it. Ensure all the {} are ht especial field code braces you can insert using ctrl-F9 Peter Jamieson "********Meg" wrote in message ... I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
#8
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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editing feilds
Just to spell it out as best I can:
The text within these field codes is ordinary text (although the special () are not) - once you can see it (use Alt-F9 to "toggle" between "view field codes" and "view field results") you can select and format it just as you would format ordinary text in a Word document. However, every field code does something different, and in some cases the field code will discard your formatting, which is why the formatting does not work within a { MERGEFIELD } field. It does, however work (broadly speaking) when you format the "result text" of an IF field. -- Peter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk "********Meg" wrote in message ... thanks, I think I understand what you are saying, but I'm not clear in how to do the formatting. This is VERY new for me. here is what I have {mergefeild Required Reading\b "required reading:'} I want the text Required Reading (which is the text that will appear if there is anything in the field ) to be bold and the content of the field to be italics (i.e., it's a book title so it should be). Ex: Required Reading (in bold): How to use excel, by So and So (in italics) thanks for your help, if this can work. it would be GREAT! Meg "Microsoft Public Groups" wrote in message ... Assuming you are using { MERGEFIELD myfield \b "beforetext: " } I don't think you can achieve the formatting you need using that technique (even replacing "beforetext" by "{ QUOTE beforetext: \*Charformat } and formatting the Q the way you want does not work). Instead, try { IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = "" "" "beforetext:: { MERGEFIELD myfield\*Charformat }" } then format beforetext: the way you want it and format the M of the second MERGEFIELD the way you want it. Ensure all the {} are ht especial field code braces you can insert using ctrl-F9 Peter Jamieson "********Meg" wrote in message ... I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
#9
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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editing feilds
Insert each pair of special field braces {} using ctrl-F9. Everything else
is ordinary text. Format the various parts of the result text the way you want. (The layout of an IF field is basically { IF condition "result text if condition is true" "result text if condition is false" } e.g., to give a contrived example, { IF 1 = 1 "you should always get the true result text" "and never this false result text" } -- Peter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk "********Meg" wrote in message ... Are those quotes or some other symbol? Am I inserting the field or typing it in. When I insert it, comes with quotes -- Meg Darnell, LMT Director of Alumni Services Swedish Institute College of Health Sciences 212-924-5900 x142 "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" - MLK "Graham Mayor" wrote in message ... Replace what you have with { IF{ MERGEFIELD RequiredReading } "" "Required Reading: { Mergefield RequiredReading }"} Use CTRL+F9 for each set of field brackets and type the rest. Format "Required Reading:" as bold font and the final { Mergefield RequiredReading }as italic. -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org ********Meg wrote: thanks, I think I understand what you are saying, but I'm not clear in how to do the formatting. This is VERY new for me. here is what I have {mergefeild Required Reading\b "required reading:'} I want the text Required Reading (which is the text that will appear if there is anything in the field ) to be bold and the content of the field to be italics (i.e., it's a book title so it should be). Ex: Required Reading (in bold): How to use excel, by So and So (in italics) thanks for your help, if this can work. it would be GREAT! Meg "Microsoft Public Groups" wrote in message ... Assuming you are using { MERGEFIELD myfield \b "beforetext: " } I don't think you can achieve the formatting you need using that technique (even replacing "beforetext" by "{ QUOTE beforetext: \*Charformat } and formatting the Q the way you want does not work). Instead, try { IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = "" "" "beforetext:: { MERGEFIELD myfield\*Charformat }" } then format beforetext: the way you want it and format the M of the second MERGEFIELD the way you want it. Ensure all the {} are ht especial field code braces you can insert using ctrl-F9 Peter Jamieson "********Meg" wrote in message ... I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
#10
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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editing feilds
I understand what you are saying for the most part.
Confusion lies in saying so what I am trying to say is " If this field is not blank, then put in the field (in italics) and put "this text" before the field (in bold) I'm just not getting this formatting down. right. -- Meg "Peter Jamieson" wrote in message ... Just to spell it out as best I can: The text within these field codes is ordinary text (although the special () are not) - once you can see it (use Alt-F9 to "toggle" between "view field codes" and "view field results") you can select and format it just as you would format ordinary text in a Word document. However, every field code does something different, and in some cases the field code will discard your formatting, which is why the formatting does not work within a { MERGEFIELD } field. It does, however work (broadly speaking) when you format the "result text" of an IF field. -- Peter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk "********Meg" wrote in message ... thanks, I think I understand what you are saying, but I'm not clear in how to do the formatting. This is VERY new for me. here is what I have {mergefeild Required Reading\b "required reading:'} I want the text Required Reading (which is the text that will appear if there is anything in the field ) to be bold and the content of the field to be italics (i.e., it's a book title so it should be). Ex: Required Reading (in bold): How to use excel, by So and So (in italics) thanks for your help, if this can work. it would be GREAT! Meg "Microsoft Public Groups" wrote in message ... Assuming you are using { MERGEFIELD myfield \b "beforetext: " } I don't think you can achieve the formatting you need using that technique (even replacing "beforetext" by "{ QUOTE beforetext: \*Charformat } and formatting the Q the way you want does not work). Instead, try { IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = "" "" "beforetext:: { MERGEFIELD myfield\*Charformat }" } then format beforetext: the way you want it and format the M of the second MERGEFIELD the way you want it. Ensure all the {} are ht especial field code braces you can insert using ctrl-F9 Peter Jamieson "********Meg" wrote in message ... I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
#11
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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editing feilds
Don't insert the fields - type them in, using CTRL+F9 for each pair of
brackets. Finally update the field F9. -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org ********Meg wrote: Are those quotes or some other symbol? Am I inserting the field or typing it in. When I insert it, comes with quotes "Graham Mayor" wrote in message ... Replace what you have with { IF{ MERGEFIELD RequiredReading } "" "Required Reading: { Mergefield RequiredReading }"} Use CTRL+F9 for each set of field brackets and type the rest. Format "Required Reading:" as bold font and the final { Mergefield RequiredReading }as italic. -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org ********Meg wrote: thanks, I think I understand what you are saying, but I'm not clear in how to do the formatting. This is VERY new for me. here is what I have {mergefeild Required Reading\b "required reading:'} I want the text Required Reading (which is the text that will appear if there is anything in the field ) to be bold and the content of the field to be italics (i.e., it's a book title so it should be). Ex: Required Reading (in bold): How to use excel, by So and So (in italics) thanks for your help, if this can work. it would be GREAT! Meg "Microsoft Public Groups" wrote in message ... Assuming you are using { MERGEFIELD myfield \b "beforetext: " } I don't think you can achieve the formatting you need using that technique (even replacing "beforetext" by "{ QUOTE beforetext: \*Charformat } and formatting the Q the way you want does not work). Instead, try { IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = "" "" "beforetext:: { MERGEFIELD myfield\*Charformat }" } then format beforetext: the way you want it and format the M of the second MERGEFIELD the way you want it. Ensure all the {} are ht especial field code braces you can insert using ctrl-F9 Peter Jamieson "********Meg" wrote in message ... I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
#12
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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editing feilds
Let's say you have entered the ctrl-F9 braces and all the text you want and
you have soemthing that looks like this (use Alt-F9 to show all the text in all the fields). { IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = "" "" "beforetext:: { MERGEFIELD myfield \*Charformat }" } Then you can select the text "beforetext: " and make it bold in exactly the same way that you would make ordinary text bold (e.g. click the B button on the formatting toolbar). Then select the entire { MERGEFIELD myfield \*Charformat } field, and make it italic in the same way that you would make ordinary text italic. -- Peter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk "********Meg" wrote in message ... I understand what you are saying for the most part. Confusion lies in saying so what I am trying to say is " If this field is not blank, then put in the field (in italics) and put "this text" before the field (in bold) I'm just not getting this formatting down. right. -- Meg "Peter Jamieson" wrote in message ... Just to spell it out as best I can: The text within these field codes is ordinary text (although the special () are not) - once you can see it (use Alt-F9 to "toggle" between "view field codes" and "view field results") you can select and format it just as you would format ordinary text in a Word document. However, every field code does something different, and in some cases the field code will discard your formatting, which is why the formatting does not work within a { MERGEFIELD } field. It does, however work (broadly speaking) when you format the "result text" of an IF field. -- Peter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk "********Meg" wrote in message ... thanks, I think I understand what you are saying, but I'm not clear in how to do the formatting. This is VERY new for me. here is what I have {mergefeild Required Reading\b "required reading:'} I want the text Required Reading (which is the text that will appear if there is anything in the field ) to be bold and the content of the field to be italics (i.e., it's a book title so it should be). Ex: Required Reading (in bold): How to use excel, by So and So (in italics) thanks for your help, if this can work. it would be GREAT! Meg "Microsoft Public Groups" wrote in message ... Assuming you are using { MERGEFIELD myfield \b "beforetext: " } I don't think you can achieve the formatting you need using that technique (even replacing "beforetext" by "{ QUOTE beforetext: \*Charformat } and formatting the Q the way you want does not work). Instead, try { IF "{ MERGEFIELD myfield }" = "" "" "beforetext:: { MERGEFIELD myfield\*Charformat }" } then format beforetext: the way you want it and format the M of the second MERGEFIELD the way you want it. Ensure all the {} are ht especial field code braces you can insert using ctrl-F9 Peter Jamieson "********Meg" wrote in message ... I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
#13
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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editing feilds
Well, I think I got it, thanks to all of you guys and some help from a
friend. The difficult thing here is that I don't know where to get the actual coding...but playing around a bit I learned that word, actually gives you an area to go and say, if this is that then this........ All of that, plus the understanding that I got from this forum gave me the help I needed. Thank you. the help screens leave a lot to be desired. -- Meg "********Meg" wrote in message ... I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
#14
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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editing feilds
You don't need to get 'actual coding' from anywhere. You type it in using
CTRL+F9 for the brackets {}and the keyboard for the rest! -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org ********Meg wrote: Well, I think I got it, thanks to all of you guys and some help from a friend. The difficult thing here is that I don't know where to get the actual coding...but playing around a bit I learned that word, actually gives you an area to go and say, if this is that then this........ All of that, plus the understanding that I got from this forum gave me the help I needed. Thank you. the help screens leave a lot to be desired. I recently learned (very happily, I might add) to edit a mail merge field to include text before or after that field. Another fabulous feature is that the text will not appear if there is no data in the datasource for that particular record. This is a very cool feature. (office 2003) However, I want to format both the text that is before the field and the actual data in the field (one would be bold and one would be italics) When I change the info in my form, it looks good, but when I do the merge, all of the formatting disappears. If I italicize the information in the data source document , it looses it's formatting as well. any ideas? thanks -- Meg |
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