WD98: View Merged Data Doesn't Suppress Blank Lines

ID: Q199839

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

In a label mail merge main document, Word may not suppress blank lines when you View Merged Data (on the Mail Merge toolbar, click View Merged Data).

NOTE: The blank lines are correctly suppressed when the document is merged to a new document or merged to printer.

CAUSE

When a MERGEFIELD is followed by a end-of-cell marker in labels or a Word table, Word cannot suppress a blank line when the MERGEFIELD is blank. However, Word will suppress a blank line when the MERGEFIELD is followed by a paragraph mark.

NOTE: To view paragraph marks and end-of-cell markers, do one of the following:

On the Tools menu, click Preferences. On the View tab, click to select the All check box (listed under "Non-printing characters") and then click OK.
-or-
On the Standard toolbar, click Show/Hide.

WORKAROUND

To allow Word to suppress blank lines when you use View Merged Data, in your mail merge main document, position the insertion point immediately after the MERGEFIELD in a label or table cell and press ENTER to create a paragraph mark. Do this for each of the labels or table cells that contain MERGEFIELDS.

MORE INFORMATION

NOTE: In the following examples, <P> represents a paragraph mark and [] represents a label (table) end-of-cell marker.

In the following example, Word will not suppress blank lines correctly when the result of a MERGEFIELD is blank:

   {MERGEFIELD Name}<P>
   {MERGEFIELD Number}[]

In the following example, Word will suppress blank lines correctly when the result of a MERGEFIELD is blank:

   {MERGEFIELD Name}<P>
   {MERGEFIELD Number}<P>
   []

Additional query words: suppression

Keywords          : kbdta kbfield macword98 kbmerge kbtable 
Platform          : MACINTOSH
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: February 7, 1999