Mail Merge Question: Skipping Field that is blank

[Alcide]

Hello All,

When merging data into a Publisher 2003 mail merge field is there a way to
skip or not print a field if it is blank (or some other criteria), as one can
do in Word. Consider the case where there is a field for Middle Initial, but
many people don't have them or don't use them. Without being able to skip the
blank fields I get an extra space, which is visually awful.

Any help or hints on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for the assistance.

[JoAnn Paules [MSFT MVP]]

I combined the middle initial with the first name in my lists - for the
exact reason you cite.

--
JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

"Alcide" <Alc...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9950FDF5-831C-4763...@microsoft.com...

[Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]]

When you go to File > Print be sure to put a check mark to not print blank
lines.
--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

[Alcide]

Hello Brian and JoAnne,

Sounds good! I will try it out tomorrow in the office and see if that does
the trick. I still plan to check the Object Explorer to see if there is
anything under the Mail Merge object that can customized.

Will report back if I have a problem with Brians solutions.

Thanks a bunch!!

[JoAnn Paules [MSFT MVP]]

It's not necessarily a blank line. It could just be a blank space which
would end up being <first name>-space-<null entry>-space-<last name>. That
double space stands out like .............. a person wearing clothes at a
nudist camp. (Sorry - couldn't think of a better analogy.)

--
JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

"Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]" <bkva...@publishermvps.com> wrote in message
news:O7rmR13I...@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...

[Alcide]

Hello JoAnn and All,

Excellent clarification, JoAnn (please pardon last post's misspelling). That
extra space comes out looking real ucky and unprofessional. I will try
tomorrow to see if suppressing printing of blank lines also prevents

I'm think along the lines of a workaround on server side would be to create
a concatenation field bringing together the parts of the name in the field,
adding extra logic or function to deal with the blank field, such as TRIM.

Wow, a real problem. Gotta put some work into this. Will report back....

Well see what

[JoAnn Paules [MSFT MVP]]

It's funny how such a little thing often isn't such a little thing. :-)

--
JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

"Alcide" <Alc...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:78D282CB-7AD1-4B12...@microsoft.com...

[Alcide]

(Got an error message on the last post send. Please pardon if this is a
repeat.)

Hello Brian et. al.,

I couldn't find the "not print blank lines" option under File>Print. Is it
somwhere else?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

"Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]" wrote:

[Alcide]

Hello Brian et. al.,

I don't see the "not print blank lines" option when I go to File>Print. Is
it somewhere else?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

"Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]" wrote:

[Mary Sauer]

File, print merge, there is a check box, "Don't print lines that contain empty
fields."

--
Mary Sauer MS MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://msauer.mvps.org/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

"Alcide" <Alc...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:F4E59C67-F7DF-4309...@microsoft.com...

[Suds]

I am attempting to merge data fields from MS-Excel 2000 into a document
created in MS-Publisher 2000. I too want to supress printing a blank field as
described here. I have tried the feature in the Print Merge dialog, "Don't
print lines that contain only empty fields," but I still get a blank line.

I thought perhaps there was some hidden character in the field, so I
recreated the merge file as ASCII instead of excel and tried again. However,
I got the same result.

Any hints?

Thanks

[Jen Gregory]

Suds... did anyone ever help you figure this out because I'm in the same boat
but in MS Word...

[Mary Sauer]

All the questions you have about Word merge is answered here:
About mail-merge fields
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP030820251033.aspx

--
Mary Sauer MSFT MVP

http://office.microsoft.com/
http://msauer.mvps.org/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

"Jen Gregory" <JenGr...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0C4032B3-ACBE-4B8B...@microsoft.com...

[torana_girl77]

Alcide,
I can't help as i am in the same boat but i was wondering if you can tell me
how to do it word. i can't seem to find the answer anywhere.

Thanks Peta

[Minnie]

Does anyone know of a way to stop blank fields from showing in Publisher 2003
when your database is in Access?

Thanks, Minnie

[me04984]

I would like to know this too, did anyone ever find an answer. I checked all
the resources listed and it doesn't address this issue. My addresses have
four or five lines and if one is skipped, it looks like the fifth one goes
with the next one. How can I make it fill in and not show a blank line?

[Mary Sauer]

There is a check-off in the print dialogue that says "Don't print lines that
contain only empty fields."

--
Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://msauer.mvps.org/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

"me04984" <me0...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:272D43A5-98D3-4200...@microsoft.com...

[me04984]

Mary, I have seen that as a solution here but have looked again and again and
again and do not find it in my Publisher 2003. Can you be more specific as to
where i is? Maybe I don't know what "print dialog" means.

[Mary Sauer]

File, print merge...this is the print dialog to which I am referring.

--
Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://msauer.mvps.org/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

"me04984" <me0...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:023701D2-62DF-43F4...@microsoft.com...

[me04984]

Under file, my only options are Page Setup, Print View, and Print. there is
not a Print Merge option. what next?

[Mary Sauer]

You must setup your merge and then the print merge dialogue will be available.

Open help, scroll down to Mail Merge, expand, click on Create a mail merge.

--
Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://msauer.mvps.org/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

"me04984" <me0...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:A35DF084-D718-4450...@microsoft.com...

[me04984]

I set up a catalog merge, it works just fine, i can print it off and
everything is perfect, except for the blank lines showing up. What step am i
not doing to see the Print Merge show up?

[me04984]

Ok, I went thru each step again! I wasn't saving the first part. so now I
come to print merge and it only shows one per page but worse yet, it says it
cannot print because I don't have CMYK orlater. I looked on my printer and
that part is grayed out. How do I get the CMYK OR SEPARATIONS feature?

[Mary Sauer]

Mail Merge
A mail merge creates a unique document for each record in the mail merge. It is
usually not desirable to apply a mail merge (create individually unique
publications) and to convert the publication to process mode for printing to an
outside printer (for mass production) at the same time. For this reason,
Publisher 2002 is designed to cancel these mutually exclusive features.

If you enable your document for one of the process color modes, and then you
click Mail Merge on the Tools menu, the Mail Merge Wizard and other options are
not available.

If you start the Mail Merge Wizard and select your data source, the Color
Printing option under Commercial Printing Tools on the Tools menu is not
available.

--
Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://msauer.mvps.org/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

"me04984" <me0...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:68A66885-044F-4A32...@microsoft.com...

[me04984]

Mary,
I followed the instructions as you told me precicely and it didn't work. Now
you are telling me that I shouldn't do it this way. How, then should I do it?
Thinking it was a problem that I had encountered because of having two older
printers and they both gave me the same message, I went out an purchased a
new one. Now that one is saying the same thing.
Would you be so kind as to tell me step by step how to do this? I have a
large data base to put into a Directory for a non-profit organization and am
up against a deadline and am not understanding what you are trying to tell
me. It seems like we are going around in circles.

[me04984]

Oh, by the way I have Publisher 2003, which is why I am on this particular
question.

[me04984]

Further I am not trying to use color. it's just names and addresses in black
print.

[JoAnn Paules]

What I've had success with is to merge into Word and then copy and paste it
into Publisher. Please bear in mind that what I am creating is a list of
over 600 participants with their addresses, phone numbers, chapter
affiliation, and class numbers.

--

JoAnn Paules
Microsoft MVP - Publisher

How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

"me04984" <me0...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:67C048C6-B0C5-4321...@microsoft.com...

[me04984]

JoAnn,
thanks for the idea, I may have to do that. The publisher catalog merge
sounded so easy and simple but it's really not. What did you do, set up Word
with tables and then merge the addresses in it? I have over 1100 in 26
chapters with name, address, phone, email and chapter. So I should probably
put them all into one Excel file and then merge into Word? Any help you can
give me I'd appreciate as I'm getting nowhere but frustrated with the
Publisher catalog merge and I'm under a time pressure.
if you want to email me directly. mela...@megalink.net thanks a million!
melanie

[Mary Sauer]

Earlier you posted you had Publisher 2002.

Use the catalog merge in 2003. Arrange the text boxes in such a way the blank
entry isn't apparent. There is a demo here you can play. You are making it too
hard.
Catalog merge
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/CH010504381033.aspx

--
Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://msauer.mvps.org/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

"me04984" <me0...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:38B24C6D-8F5F-421E...@microsoft.com...

[JoAnn Paules]

Mine is just a list.

Name
Address
City, State Zip
Phone
Chapter, region
Class number

Name
Address
City, State Zip
Phone
Chapter, region
Class number

etc.
This goes one for about 30 pages, three columns wide. No tables.

I'm curious what kind of group you're doing yours for. :-)

--
JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~

How to ask a question

http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

"me04984" <me0...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:38B24C6D-8F5F-421E...@microsoft.com...

[Mary Sauer]

Why aren't you using the catalog merge? It is the right application for a
directory.

--
Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://msauer.mvps.org/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

"JoAnn Paules" <jl_p...@hotNOSPAMmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23PgWDnm...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

[JoAnn Paules]

I wasn't doing the final handbook and the woman I was helping isn't
experienced with merges. The database was sent to me in Access and the
editor doesn't have that. Plus she has limited experience with Excel. I
needed to get her something she could easily (and quickly) copy and paste
into her Publisher file. All of this was being done via email.

--
JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

"Mary Sauer" <mary-...@mycolumbus.rr.com> wrote in message
news:esBbN1n3...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

[me04984]

Mine is simply two columns of
Name
Address
city, state, zip
Phone
e-mail
Chapter

Now I am making some changes on the other pages and cannot even print it
off. A message keeps coming up that says. "Publisher cannot print this
publication.To print composite CMYK or separations, you must use a printer
driver that is set to output PostScript language level 2 or later."

Now this is after I have printed off many pages since starting this project
in an effort to perfect the booklet. Mary, what does this mean? I have three
printers and and it says the same thing on all of them!

Melanie

[Mary Sauer]

These articles may help
You receive a Publisher cannot continue error message when you try to print a
mail merge in Publisher 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828505/en-us
"Publisher cannot print CMYK composite... " error message and Publisher 2003
quits unexpectedly when you try to print a mail merge
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826451/

--
Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://msauer.mvps.org/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

"me04984" <me0...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:0F21E2D5-30E6-4ED5...@microsoft.com...

[msft]

[msft]

[msft]

[alwein]

Mary,
I have a mail list that works as you describe and just fine. I am now
trying to do a directory and at no point do I get "Don't Print Blank Lines".
Is that how it is? Do I need to use "If Then Else"? Seems to be the same in
WORD and Publisher.
--
Al the Computer Pal

[Mary Sauer]

There is no "If Then Else" in Publisher. There is a check-off about not printing
blank lines on the print merge screen. It is always checked by default.

--
Mary Sauer
http://msauer.mvps.org/

"alwein" <alw...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B3446E62-0DE2-4E66...@microsoft.com...