Line Suppression Does Not Occur When Merging to Fax or E-Mail

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

SYMPTOMS

A mail merge document that suppresses blank lines when merged to a printer will not suppress those blank lines when the same document is merged to a fax or to E-mail.

STATUS

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

WORKAROUND

You can use a combination of mergefields and conditional IF statements to suppress blank lines whether merging to a printer or using e-mail or fax:

{mergefield firstname} {mergefield lastname} {mergefield address1} {if {mergefield address2} <> "" "{mergefield address2}<press enter> "}{mergefield city}, {mergefield state} {mergefield zip}

NOTE: In the third line above, you must press ENTER before placing the ending quotation mark (on the subsequent line) for the conditional clause. The line that is not being suppressed is the one generated by {address2}.

To see mergefields as they appear above, you must turn on Field Codes view. To do this, from the Tools menu, choose Options. On the View tab, select the Field Codes check box, then choose the OK button.