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.

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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.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-12-21T02:54:34+00:00

    What possible reason could Micro$oft have for making this process MUCH MORE DIFFICULT!!!!!!!????

    I don't want (& I doubt many other people do either) to write code to get my mailmerge to suppress blank lines.

    I especially do NOT want to do this when I used to be able to simply select an option: Suppress blank lines in a mailmerge when a field is empty.

    This sort of thing infuriates me. Do they do it on purpose? Are they actually demons from hell bent on driving us all nuts with their bugs & flaws they refer to as "features" and "improvements".

    I HATE MICRO$OFT with unceasing passion!

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