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
    2011-09-09T20:59:49+00:00

    Perhaps I should be clear,  this problem occurs when making Labels to stick on envelopes for mailing.

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  3. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2011-09-09T15:06:25+00:00

    This is a different issue. If you need to change line spacing in a paragraph, you need to do so through the Paragraph dialog. Alternatively, there is a Line and Paragraph Spacing button in the Paragraph group on the Home tab and a Paragraph Spacing menu accessed via the Change Styles button in the Styles group.

    All versions of Word beginning with Word 2000 have defaulted to HTML paragraph spacing (a Compatibility Option setting), but that applies only to treatment of Spacing Before and After. What you are describing, I think, is the default paragraph spacing of the Normal style in Word 2007 and 2010, which is 1.15 line spacing, plus 10 points Spacing After. You do not need to use this; you can change the paragraph spacing and set the change as the default; you can even revert to Word 2003 styles entirely using Change Styles.

    But none of this has anything to do with how mail merge handles blank lines.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-09-09T13:24:35+00:00

    "In general, blank lines are automatically suppressed, but only if they end in a paragraph break, not a line break. "

    NOT TRUE!!!!

    Yes, this USED to work in Word 2003 - but does NOT in Word 2010!

    They've really messed up ALL the line spacing throughout Word 2010 - it DEFAULTS to HTML spacing!

    Instead of all that junk up above to make it "suppress blank lines" why not a simple Check Box or something that says "Suppress Blank Lines"?

    Why are they making things MORE difficult?

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