Suppress Blank Lines in a mail merge

Anonymous
2010-09-17T14:37:31+00:00

Using Word 2007, I am creating a mail merge. Some addresses have one line, some have two (Suite number, etc.) I want to suppress the second address field only if it is blank, so there are no blank lines in the document after I perform the merge. In older versions of Word, I remember a check box for "suppress blank fields" but I can't seem to find that in 2007.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2010-09-17T14:59:46+00:00

In general, blank lines are automatically suppressed, but only if they end in a paragraph break, not a line break. Consequently, the default is not a solution for me and perhaps not for you, either. So you have to use an IF field. Assuming your two address lines are the merge fields Address1 and Address2, you'd have something like this.

{ MERGEFIELD Address1 }<line break>

{ IF { MERGEFIELD Address2 } = "" "" "{MERGEFIELD ADDRESS2}<line break>" }

The way that will actually appear in your document is:

{ MERGEFIELD Address1 }

{ IF { MERGEFIELD Address2 } = "" "" "{MERGEFIELD ADDRESS2}

" }

By putting the line break inside the FalseText quotes, you ensure that thereis a line break only if the line contains text; otherwise, there will be no line.

Was this answer helpful?

10+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

49 additional answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2012-05-03T17:41:10+00:00

    HERE IS HOW YOU DO IT .... in 2010

    It's amazing some of you "masters of the program" missed this one...

    1. Right Click the code that represents the field that you want to collapse when blank
    2. Click "Edit Field"
    3. Clickl "Field Codes"

    4 Click "Options"

    1. Click "Field Specific Switches" tab

    6 Click " \F"

    1. Click OK then OK

    Proceed with the rest of the mail merge process....

    www.brightinsight.com

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2012-05-03T18:44:53+00:00

    Thank you, but I followed your example step by step - and I still got blank lines - it did not work.

    But, again, my question is (even if this is the correct procedure and I just did something wrong) WHY am I jumping through all of these "hoops" just to do something that seems to be common sense and USED to work automatically in an EARLIER version of Word???

    Why not a simple question box with a checkmark:  "Suppress Blank Lines?"

    It's like going "backwards"!  There's a lot I need to keep up with for my own job....it's amazing to me that Microsoft thinks I have the time to re-learn how to do things and "where" everything is in their new "so-called" updated versions!

    I can't tell you how much I used to be a "wiz" at how to do everything in 2003 - now I feel as if I've almost never used MS before because they have to radically change everything.  Change is good, but only if it makes things easier/better!

    This is going "backwards"!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2012-05-03T18:56:20+00:00

    Besides the description for "/f" says:

    "Specifies the text to be inserted after the mergefield if the mergefield is not blank"

    It says: "if the mergefield is NOT blank" - the issue is that the field potentially IS blank.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2012-07-26T13:15:05+00:00

    I had a customer with the same problem in Office 2010, i got round this be creating the mailmerge again and saving as a doc file in word 2003.  Then they were able to run the mailmerge fine

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments