Doc Error: Blank Lines Not Suppressed for Certain Characters

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c

SYMPTOMS

There is a documentation error in the "Preventing Blank Lines" section on page 695 of "Microsoft Word User's Guide."

If you perform a mail merge operation and select the Don't Print Blank Lines When Data Fields Are Empty option, Word for Windows may fail to suppress blank lines as documented on page 695 when the field contains the following characters:

   The following punctuation marks: . , ; : ? ! <open exclamation mark>
   <open question mark>

   Nonprinting characters such as spaces, tab characters, and
   paragraph marks.

For example, if a field contains one of the punctuation mark listed above, Word prints that character in your merged document and does not suppress the blank line regardless of the format of your data document (either table or tab- or comma-delimited). By contrast, if a field contains a nonprinting character, such as a tab or space, Word prints that character and does not suppress the blank line when your data document is a table; whereas, if your data document is a tab- or comma-delimited file, Word does not print that character and suppresses the blank line as expected.

The following table lists the behavior of punctuation or nonprinting characters in either a table or a delimited text file:

                           Behavior                 Behavior in
Data Field Contains        in Table                 Delimited File
-------------------        --------                 --------------

Nothing (field is empty)   Nothing prints;          Nothing prints;
                           blank line suppressed.   blank line suppressed.

Pair of quotation marks    Prints as text;          Does not print;
(either "straight" or      blank line prints.       blank line suppressed.

Text enclosed in           Quotes and text print.   Only text prints.

Punctuation (. , ; : ? !   Prints as text;          Prints as text;
<open exclamation mark>    blank line prints.       blank line prints.

Nonprinting character      Prints as text;          Does not print;
(tab, space, paragraph     blank line prints.       blank line suppressed.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Word for Windows versions 6.0, 6.0a, and 6.0c. This problem was corrected in Word version 7.0 for Windows 95.

MORE INFORMATION

By design, if a field contains a character such as a space, paragraph mark, or tab enclosed in quotation marks, Word does not consider the field to be empty, so no line suppression occurs. Be sure you do not confuse this normal behavior with the problem described above. Some database applications (such as dBASE) enclose each field in quotation marks and place a space in a blank field. If this happens, Word does not suppress blank lines (because the space is a valid character when it is enclosed in quotation marks), so you may need to replace all occurrences of " " (a space enclosed in double quotation marks) with "" (double quotation marks) before you perform the mail merge operation in Word.

The dBASE products included here are manufactured by vendors independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.

REFERENCES

"Microsoft Word User's Guide," version 6.0, pages 695