WD: Mail Merge: Blank Lines Not Suppressed in Last Line in Table

• Microsoft Word for Windows, version 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
• Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, version 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.1a
• Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

The Microsoft Word Mail Merge helper does not suppress blank lines in View Merged Data if the blank line occurs on the last line in a table cell in the main document.

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

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use either of the following methods.

Method 1

Include the last paragraph mark inside of a conditional by replacing the mergefields with the following:

   {MERGEFIELD Name}{if {MERGEFIELD Number} <> "" "[paragraph mark]
   {MERGEFIELD Number}"}

Method 2

Word suppresses the blank line if the MERGEFIELDS are followed by a paragraph mark rather than the end of cell marker. To force suppression of the blank lines in View Merged Data, follow these steps:

1. Position the insertion point immediately after the last field in the cell and press ENTER to create a paragraph mark.

2. With the insertion point in the new blank line, click Paragraph on the Format menu.

3. In the Line Spacing box, select Exactly and type "0.01"" (without the quotation marks) in the At box. Click OK.

STATUS

Microsoft is researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

In the following example, Word correctly suppresses the blank line for the first record but not for the second record when you click the View Merged Data button on the Mail Merge toolbar.

Main Document:

|-----------------------------------|
| {Mergefield Name}<paragraph>      |
| {Mergefield Number}<end of cell>  |
|-----------------------------------|

Name,Number ,88 Word User,