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#1
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HUGE if statements...lots of blank space
Twice in a day...sorry, guys.
So I'm working on my merge codes, and the document is insanely large. Like, really big. Pages and pages of merge code IF statements - there are a ton of variables. My two page letter is up to 12 pages of merge code. Problem is that when I have false results, and I specify "", I'm getting a huge amount of blank space in my letters after I complete the merge. Thoughts? Would a switch help with something like this? Heather |
#2
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HUGE if statements...lots of blank space
Oh - and I'm using Word 2003.
Heather |
#3
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HUGE if statements...lots of blank space
Hi Heather,
The trick to suppressing the inclusion of extraneous text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds in to conditionally include them in your IF tests. For example, instead of having a space after: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84}"}}}} when the result is empty, delete the space following the field and encode the field as: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84} "}}}} You can replace the space following the INCLUDETEXT field with a text string and/or a carriage return/line feed, if appropriate. You can just as readily incorporate the conditional text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds ahead of the INCLUDETEXT field - you can even do both. Simply put all of the conditional text within the quote characters used to define the bounds of the true result. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... Twice in a day...sorry, guys. So I'm working on my merge codes, and the document is insanely large. Like, really big. Pages and pages of merge code IF statements - there are a ton of variables. My two page letter is up to 12 pages of merge code. Problem is that when I have false results, and I specify "", I'm getting a huge amount of blank space in my letters after I complete the merge. Thoughts? Would a switch help with something like this? Heather |
#4
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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HUGE if statements...lots of blank space
I thought that a false result returning nothing should have "" double
quotations? macropod wrote: Hi Heather, The trick to suppressing the inclusion of extraneous text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds in to conditionally include them in your IF tests. For example, instead of having a space after: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84}"}}}} when the result is empty, delete the space following the field and encode the field as: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84} "}}}} You can replace the space following the INCLUDETEXT field with a text string and/or a carriage return/line feed, if appropriate. You can just as readily incorporate the conditional text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds ahead of the INCLUDETEXT field - you can even do both. Simply put all of the conditional text within the quote characters used to define the bounds of the true result. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... Twice in a day...sorry, guys. So I'm working on my merge codes, and the document is insanely large. Like, really big. Pages and pages of merge code IF statements - there are a ton of variables. My two page letter is up to 12 pages of merge code. Problem is that when I have false results, and I specify "", I'm getting a huge amount of blank space in my letters after I complete the merge. Thoughts? Would a switch help with something like this? Heather |
#5
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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HUGE if statements...lots of blank space
It's difficult to tell why without seeing the document or a really accurate
transcription of the field codes, but my best guess is as follows. Suppose you have a { IF b = c "d" "" } { IF e = f "g" "" } i then if both comparisons fail you will get a i because there is a paragraph mark after each IF field, and it will always be inserted. If you use a{ IF b = c "d" "" }{ IF e = f "g" "" }i you won't get these extra paragraph marks. If you want to long chunks of field codes a bit easier to read (but with more problems switching from field code view to field result view, because of repagination, unless you're in "Normal View"), you can use a{ IF b = c "d" "" }{ IF e = f "g" "" }i Peter Jamieson "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... I thought that a false result returning nothing should have "" double quotations? macropod wrote: Hi Heather, The trick to suppressing the inclusion of extraneous text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds in to conditionally include them in your IF tests. For example, instead of having a space after: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84}"}}}} when the result is empty, delete the space following the field and encode the field as: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84} "}}}} You can replace the space following the INCLUDETEXT field with a text string and/or a carriage return/line feed, if appropriate. You can just as readily incorporate the conditional text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds ahead of the INCLUDETEXT field - you can even do both. Simply put all of the conditional text within the quote characters used to define the bounds of the true result. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... Twice in a day...sorry, guys. So I'm working on my merge codes, and the document is insanely large. Like, really big. Pages and pages of merge code IF statements - there are a ton of variables. My two page letter is up to 12 pages of merge code. Problem is that when I have false results, and I specify "", I'm getting a huge amount of blank space in my letters after I complete the merge. Thoughts? Would a switch help with something like this? Heather |
#6
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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HUGE if statements...lots of blank space
I've been really careeful to keep an eye on paragraph marks after my IF
fields...I'm starting to think that the larger issue is the sheer amount of code I'm putting into these letters. Here is an example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291618325/ That is a working copy of my code, with white space inserted in between each block of IF statements. When I paste it into my template letter, I go through and delete all of the paragraphs and make it one big run-on paragraph. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291622301/ That's as much as I could fit into a single screenshot. But there are pages and pages of this...yesterday afternoon, I hit 12 pages of code for a two page letter. I'm trying reducing the code in the main letter to reference just two of the conditions, and then merge a document into the letter if both are true...that seems to be cutting down on the insertion of the white space. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291623913/ I really appreciate your help (and macropods, and Graham, and others) with this. Learning this code has been really difficult! Heather Peter Jamieson wrote: It's difficult to tell why without seeing the document or a really accurate transcription of the field codes, but my best guess is as follows. Suppose you have a { IF b = c "d" "" } { IF e = f "g" "" } i then if both comparisons fail you will get a i because there is a paragraph mark after each IF field, and it will always be inserted. If you use a{ IF b = c "d" "" }{ IF e = f "g" "" }i you won't get these extra paragraph marks. If you want to long chunks of field codes a bit easier to read (but with more problems switching from field code view to field result view, because of repagination, unless you're in "Normal View"), you can use a{ IF b = c "d" "" }{ IF e = f "g" "" }i Peter Jamieson "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... I thought that a false result returning nothing should have "" double quotations? macropod wrote: Hi Heather, The trick to suppressing the inclusion of extraneous text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds in to conditionally include them in your IF tests. For example, instead of having a space after: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84}"}}}} when the result is empty, delete the space following the field and encode the field as: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84} "}}}} You can replace the space following the INCLUDETEXT field with a text string and/or a carriage return/line feed, if appropriate. You can just as readily incorporate the conditional text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds ahead of the INCLUDETEXT field - you can even do both. Simply put all of the conditional text within the quote characters used to define the bounds of the true result. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... Twice in a day...sorry, guys. So I'm working on my merge codes, and the document is insanely large. Like, really big. Pages and pages of merge code IF statements - there are a ton of variables. My two page letter is up to 12 pages of merge code. Problem is that when I have false results, and I specify "", I'm getting a huge amount of blank space in my letters after I complete the merge. Thoughts? Would a switch help with something like this? Heather |
#7
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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HUGE if statements...lots of blank space
Well...sort of a fix, but it still doesn't solve the original problem.
But...it's working, so I'll just go with it. I found some macro code and edited it some - so any instance of three paragraph marks will be deleted. The ultimate solution - at this point - will be to apply styles to my letters so that I don't have any double paragraph marks, which would allow the letters to be refined even further. Sub ReplacePara() Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory Selection.Find.ClearFormatting With Selection.Find .Text = "^p^p^p" .Replacement.Text = "" .Forward = True .Wrap = wdFindContinue .Format = False .MatchCase = False .MatchWholeWord = False .MatchWildcards = False .MatchSoundsLike = False .MatchAllWordForms = False End With Selection.Find.Execute While Selection.Find.Found Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1 Selection.TypeBackspace Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=2 Selection.Find.Execute Wend End Sub Seven days to go-live...not that I'm counting.... Heather wrote: I've been really careeful to keep an eye on paragraph marks after my IF fields...I'm starting to think that the larger issue is the sheer amount of code I'm putting into these letters. Here is an example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291618325/ That is a working copy of my code, with white space inserted in between each block of IF statements. When I paste it into my template letter, I go through and delete all of the paragraphs and make it one big run-on paragraph. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291622301/ That's as much as I could fit into a single screenshot. But there are pages and pages of this...yesterday afternoon, I hit 12 pages of code for a two page letter. I'm trying reducing the code in the main letter to reference just two of the conditions, and then merge a document into the letter if both are true...that seems to be cutting down on the insertion of the white space. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291623913/ I really appreciate your help (and macropods, and Graham, and others) with this. Learning this code has been really difficult! Heather Peter Jamieson wrote: It's difficult to tell why without seeing the document or a really accurate transcription of the field codes, but my best guess is as follows. Suppose you have a { IF b = c "d" "" } { IF e = f "g" "" } i then if both comparisons fail you will get a i because there is a paragraph mark after each IF field, and it will always be inserted. If you use a{ IF b = c "d" "" }{ IF e = f "g" "" }i you won't get these extra paragraph marks. If you want to long chunks of field codes a bit easier to read (but with more problems switching from field code view to field result view, because of repagination, unless you're in "Normal View"), you can use a{ IF b = c "d" "" }{ IF e = f "g" "" }i Peter Jamieson "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... I thought that a false result returning nothing should have "" double quotations? macropod wrote: Hi Heather, The trick to suppressing the inclusion of extraneous text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds in to conditionally include them in your IF tests. For example, instead of having a space after: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84}"}}}} when the result is empty, delete the space following the field and encode the field as: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84} "}}}} You can replace the space following the INCLUDETEXT field with a text string and/or a carriage return/line feed, if appropriate. You can just as readily incorporate the conditional text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds ahead of the INCLUDETEXT field - you can even do both. Simply put all of the conditional text within the quote characters used to define the bounds of the true result. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... Twice in a day...sorry, guys. So I'm working on my merge codes, and the document is insanely large. Like, really big. Pages and pages of merge code IF statements - there are a ton of variables. My two page letter is up to 12 pages of merge code. Problem is that when I have false results, and I specify "", I'm getting a huge amount of blank space in my letters after I complete the merge. Thoughts? Would a switch help with something like this? Heather |
#8
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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HUGE if statements...lots of blank space
I had the impression that you were sure that this extra space was coming in
via "false" evaluations in the IF fields, but just to be certain, could it be coming in because the bookmarks in your included documents cover paragraph marks and/or other white space? I have to say that when I try this here (in a simplifed case where I just replicate the IF field a few hundred times) I don't get any extra white space except the stuff that comes in from bookmarks. Peter Jamieson "Heather" wrote in message ups.com... I've been really careeful to keep an eye on paragraph marks after my IF fields...I'm starting to think that the larger issue is the sheer amount of code I'm putting into these letters. Here is an example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291618325/ That is a working copy of my code, with white space inserted in between each block of IF statements. When I paste it into my template letter, I go through and delete all of the paragraphs and make it one big run-on paragraph. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291622301/ That's as much as I could fit into a single screenshot. But there are pages and pages of this...yesterday afternoon, I hit 12 pages of code for a two page letter. I'm trying reducing the code in the main letter to reference just two of the conditions, and then merge a document into the letter if both are true...that seems to be cutting down on the insertion of the white space. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291623913/ I really appreciate your help (and macropods, and Graham, and others) with this. Learning this code has been really difficult! Heather Peter Jamieson wrote: It's difficult to tell why without seeing the document or a really accurate transcription of the field codes, but my best guess is as follows. Suppose you have a { IF b = c "d" "" } { IF e = f "g" "" } i then if both comparisons fail you will get a i because there is a paragraph mark after each IF field, and it will always be inserted. If you use a{ IF b = c "d" "" }{ IF e = f "g" "" }i you won't get these extra paragraph marks. If you want to long chunks of field codes a bit easier to read (but with more problems switching from field code view to field result view, because of repagination, unless you're in "Normal View"), you can use a{ IF b = c "d" "" }{ IF e = f "g" "" }i Peter Jamieson "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... I thought that a false result returning nothing should have "" double quotations? macropod wrote: Hi Heather, The trick to suppressing the inclusion of extraneous text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds in to conditionally include them in your IF tests. For example, instead of having a space after: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84}"}}}} when the result is empty, delete the space following the field and encode the field as: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84} "}}}} You can replace the space following the INCLUDETEXT field with a text string and/or a carriage return/line feed, if appropriate. You can just as readily incorporate the conditional text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds ahead of the INCLUDETEXT field - you can even do both. Simply put all of the conditional text within the quote characters used to define the bounds of the true result. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... Twice in a day...sorry, guys. So I'm working on my merge codes, and the document is insanely large. Like, really big. Pages and pages of merge code IF statements - there are a ton of variables. My two page letter is up to 12 pages of merge code. Problem is that when I have false results, and I specify "", I'm getting a huge amount of blank space in my letters after I complete the merge. Thoughts? Would a switch help with something like this? Heather |
#9
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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HUGE if statements...lots of blank space
I don't _think_ so, but I could be wrong. I have inspected the
bookmarks to look for extra paragraph marks and white space...but I could be missing something. But it seemed like this problem of the gigantor white space didn't seem to arise until my merge codes started going on for more than 15-20 lines. I haven't found any documentation to support that theory...but now that I've hit the fifteenth page of code for a two page letter, I suspect it might be the case. I'm definitely not the expert, though. But apply a style to the overall template and then running a macro to take out the extra paragraph results is doing what I need it to do. Very weird. Generally speaking, how does the spacing within an {if {mergefield...}""} code impact the final spacing in a merged letter? Heather Peter Jamieson wrote: I had the impression that you were sure that this extra space was coming in via "false" evaluations in the IF fields, but just to be certain, could it be coming in because the bookmarks in your included documents cover paragraph marks and/or other white space? I have to say that when I try this here (in a simplifed case where I just replicate the IF field a few hundred times) I don't get any extra white space except the stuff that comes in from bookmarks. Peter Jamieson "Heather" wrote in message ups.com... I've been really careeful to keep an eye on paragraph marks after my IF fields...I'm starting to think that the larger issue is the sheer amount of code I'm putting into these letters. Here is an example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291618325/ That is a working copy of my code, with white space inserted in between each block of IF statements. When I paste it into my template letter, I go through and delete all of the paragraphs and make it one big run-on paragraph. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291622301/ That's as much as I could fit into a single screenshot. But there are pages and pages of this...yesterday afternoon, I hit 12 pages of code for a two page letter. I'm trying reducing the code in the main letter to reference just two of the conditions, and then merge a document into the letter if both are true...that seems to be cutting down on the insertion of the white space. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291623913/ I really appreciate your help (and macropods, and Graham, and others) with this. Learning this code has been really difficult! Heather Peter Jamieson wrote: It's difficult to tell why without seeing the document or a really accurate transcription of the field codes, but my best guess is as follows. Suppose you have a { IF b = c "d" "" } { IF e = f "g" "" } i then if both comparisons fail you will get a i because there is a paragraph mark after each IF field, and it will always be inserted. If you use a{ IF b = c "d" "" }{ IF e = f "g" "" }i you won't get these extra paragraph marks. If you want to long chunks of field codes a bit easier to read (but with more problems switching from field code view to field result view, because of repagination, unless you're in "Normal View"), you can use a{ IF b = c "d" "" }{ IF e = f "g" "" }i Peter Jamieson "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... I thought that a false result returning nothing should have "" double quotations? macropod wrote: Hi Heather, The trick to suppressing the inclusion of extraneous text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds in to conditionally include them in your IF tests. For example, instead of having a space after: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84}"}}}} when the result is empty, delete the space following the field and encode the field as: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84} "}}}} You can replace the space following the INCLUDETEXT field with a text string and/or a carriage return/line feed, if appropriate. You can just as readily incorporate the conditional text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds ahead of the INCLUDETEXT field - you can even do both. Simply put all of the conditional text within the quote characters used to define the bounds of the true result. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... Twice in a day...sorry, guys. So I'm working on my merge codes, and the document is insanely large. Like, really big. Pages and pages of merge code IF statements - there are a ton of variables. My two page letter is up to 12 pages of merge code. Problem is that when I have false results, and I specify "", I'm getting a huge amount of blank space in my letters after I complete the merge. Thoughts? Would a switch help with something like this? Heather |
#10
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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HUGE if statements...lots of blank space
All my efforts to complicate and lengthen/deepen my own test sample haven't
revealed the problem yet, but my sample is still rather simple.. I haven't found any documentation to support that theory...but now that I've hit the fifteenth page of code for a two page letter, I suspect it might be the case. It could well be. If you would like a second opinion and feel able to provide the document and a suitable sample data source I can certainly have a look here, probably tomorrow (Wednesday). Peter Jamieson "Heather" wrote in message ps.com... I don't _think_ so, but I could be wrong. I have inspected the bookmarks to look for extra paragraph marks and white space...but I could be missing something. But it seemed like this problem of the gigantor white space didn't seem to arise until my merge codes started going on for more than 15-20 lines. I haven't found any documentation to support that theory...but now that I've hit the fifteenth page of code for a two page letter, I suspect it might be the case. I'm definitely not the expert, though. But apply a style to the overall template and then running a macro to take out the extra paragraph results is doing what I need it to do. Very weird. Generally speaking, how does the spacing within an {if {mergefield...}""} code impact the final spacing in a merged letter? Heather Peter Jamieson wrote: I had the impression that you were sure that this extra space was coming in via "false" evaluations in the IF fields, but just to be certain, could it be coming in because the bookmarks in your included documents cover paragraph marks and/or other white space? I have to say that when I try this here (in a simplifed case where I just replicate the IF field a few hundred times) I don't get any extra white space except the stuff that comes in from bookmarks. Peter Jamieson "Heather" wrote in message ups.com... I've been really careeful to keep an eye on paragraph marks after my IF fields...I'm starting to think that the larger issue is the sheer amount of code I'm putting into these letters. Here is an example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291618325/ That is a working copy of my code, with white space inserted in between each block of IF statements. When I paste it into my template letter, I go through and delete all of the paragraphs and make it one big run-on paragraph. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291622301/ That's as much as I could fit into a single screenshot. But there are pages and pages of this...yesterday afternoon, I hit 12 pages of code for a two page letter. I'm trying reducing the code in the main letter to reference just two of the conditions, and then merge a document into the letter if both are true...that seems to be cutting down on the insertion of the white space. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lectio/291623913/ I really appreciate your help (and macropods, and Graham, and others) with this. Learning this code has been really difficult! Heather Peter Jamieson wrote: It's difficult to tell why without seeing the document or a really accurate transcription of the field codes, but my best guess is as follows. Suppose you have a { IF b = c "d" "" } { IF e = f "g" "" } i then if both comparisons fail you will get a i because there is a paragraph mark after each IF field, and it will always be inserted. If you use a{ IF b = c "d" "" }{ IF e = f "g" "" }i you won't get these extra paragraph marks. If you want to long chunks of field codes a bit easier to read (but with more problems switching from field code view to field result view, because of repagination, unless you're in "Normal View"), you can use a{ IF b = c "d" "" }{ IF e = f "g" "" }i Peter Jamieson "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... I thought that a false result returning nothing should have "" double quotations? macropod wrote: Hi Heather, The trick to suppressing the inclusion of extraneous text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds in to conditionally include them in your IF tests. For example, instead of having a space after: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84}"}}}} when the result is empty, delete the space following the field and encode the field as: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84} "}}}} You can replace the space following the INCLUDETEXT field with a text string and/or a carriage return/line feed, if appropriate. You can just as readily incorporate the conditional text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds ahead of the INCLUDETEXT field - you can even do both. Simply put all of the conditional text within the quote characters used to define the bounds of the true result. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... Twice in a day...sorry, guys. So I'm working on my merge codes, and the document is insanely large. Like, really big. Pages and pages of merge code IF statements - there are a ton of variables. My two page letter is up to 12 pages of merge code. Problem is that when I have false results, and I specify "", I'm getting a huge amount of blank space in my letters after I complete the merge. Thoughts? Would a switch help with something like this? Heather |
#11
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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HUGE if statements...lots of blank space
Hi Heather,
If the false result is empty, there's no need to include it at all. You'll also note I left out most of the other double-quotes - if expression consists of another field, they're not needed either. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... I thought that a false result returning nothing should have "" double quotations? macropod wrote: Hi Heather, The trick to suppressing the inclusion of extraneous text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds in to conditionally include them in your IF tests. For example, instead of having a space after: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84}"}}}} when the result is empty, delete the space following the field and encode the field as: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84} "}}}} You can replace the space following the INCLUDETEXT field with a text string and/or a carriage return/line feed, if appropriate. You can just as readily incorporate the conditional text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds ahead of the INCLUDETEXT field - you can even do both. Simply put all of the conditional text within the quote characters used to define the bounds of the true result. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... Twice in a day...sorry, guys. So I'm working on my merge codes, and the document is insanely large. Like, really big. Pages and pages of merge code IF statements - there are a ton of variables. My two page letter is up to 12 pages of merge code. Problem is that when I have false results, and I specify "", I'm getting a huge amount of blank space in my letters after I complete the merge. Thoughts? Would a switch help with something like this? Heather |
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HUGE if statements...lots of blank space
Thanks, Macropod. And thanks for the offer, Peter - I think I'll just
keep plugging away on my project for now. Heather macropod wrote: Hi Heather, If the false result is empty, there's no need to include it at all. You'll also note I left out most of the other double-quotes - if expression consists of another field, they're not needed either. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... I thought that a false result returning nothing should have "" double quotations? macropod wrote: Hi Heather, The trick to suppressing the inclusion of extraneous text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds in to conditionally include them in your IF tests. For example, instead of having a space after: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84}"}}}} when the result is empty, delete the space following the field and encode the field as: {IF{MERGEFIELD admittype}= HS {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmp111}= 2010 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111}= 80 {IF{MERGEFIELD evalcmpvalue111} 85 "{INCLUDETEXT "c:\\master_comment.doc" admission_award_80_to_84} "}}}} You can replace the space following the INCLUDETEXT field with a text string and/or a carriage return/line feed, if appropriate. You can just as readily incorporate the conditional text, spaces & carriage returns/line feeds ahead of the INCLUDETEXT field - you can even do both. Simply put all of the conditional text within the quote characters used to define the bounds of the true result. Cheers -- macropod [MVP - Microsoft Word] "Heather" wrote in message oups.com... Twice in a day...sorry, guys. So I'm working on my merge codes, and the document is insanely large. Like, really big. Pages and pages of merge code IF statements - there are a ton of variables. My two page letter is up to 12 pages of merge code. Problem is that when I have false results, and I specify "", I'm getting a huge amount of blank space in my letters after I complete the merge. Thoughts? Would a switch help with something like this? Heather |
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