WD2000: How to Use Nested IF Fields in a Mail Merge Document

ID: Q214827

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word 2000

SUMMARY

In Word, you can use the IF field to obtain customized mail merge results. By nesting IF fields, as described in this article, you can obtain conditional mail merge results and logically construct the equivalent of Boolean AND and OR statements.

MORE INFORMATION

The IF field syntax is as follows

{IF Exp Op Exp TrueResult [FalseResult]}

where TrueResult and FalseResult can be either text or a nested IF field. If you do not include the FalseResult argument, Word returns nothing if the result is false.

Conditional Print Merge Results Using IF Field

In the following example, each form letter requests that its recipient attend a meeting on a different date, based on the city field.

Data Document

NAME, ADDRESS, CITY, STATE, ZIP
Bill Brown, 123 Acorn St., Seattle, WA, 98035
Sandy Sill, 234 Ash St., Los Angeles, CA, 99888
Fred Turner, 345 Birch Ave., San Francisco, CA, 45555
Lynne Lowe, 456 Walnut St., Boise, ID, 83240

Main Document

Please attend the Windows meeting on {if {city}= "Seattle" "Tuesday, March 21." "{if {city}= "Los Angeles" "Wednesday, March 22." {if {city}= "San Francisco" "Thursday, March 23." "Friday, March 24."}"}"}.

Merged Results

(for Mr. Brown)
Please attend the Windows meeting on Tuesday, March 21.

(for Ms. Sill)
Please attend the Windows meeting on Wednesday, March 22.

(for Mr. Turner)
Please attend the Windows meeting on Thursday, March 23.

(for Ms. Lowe)
Please attend the Windows meeting on Friday, March 24.

Using IF Field to Perform Boolean AND and OR Operations

The IF field does not directly support Boolean AND and OR operations in a mail merge. However, the logical AND and OR operators are actually just abbreviations of nested IF statements; therefore, you can construct the equivalent of Boolean AND and OR operations.

Starting with the basic IF statement

{IF test1 "TrueResult" "FalseResult"}

you can nest another IF statement to create a logical OR or AND statement as in the following examples:

To create an OR statement (Position the second test inside the second set of quotation marks):

{IF test1 "TrueResult" "{IF test2 "TrueResult" "FalseResult"}"}

To create an "AND" statement (Position the second test inside the first set of quotation marks):

{IF test1 "{IF test2 "TrueResult" "FalseResult"}" "FalseResult"}

Constructing a Boolean AND Statement

This AND statement


   IF (field <> "A") AND (field <> "B") THEN
      "TrueResult"
   ELSE
      "FalseResult"
   END IF

can be translated to an IF statement for use in a mail merge as follows:

{IF field <> "A" "{IF field <> "B" "TrueResult" "FalseResult"}" "FalseResult"}

Constructing a Boolean OR Statement

This OR statement


   IF (field = "A") OR (field = "B") THEN
      "TrueResult"
   ELSE
      "FalseResult"
   END IF

can be translated to an IF statement for use in a mail merge as follows:

{IF field = "A" "result" "{IF field = "B" "TrueResult" "FalseResult"}"}

Additional query words: mailmerge how to print

Keywords : kbdta wd2000
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbinfo