Microsoft KB Archive/77982

= WD: WinWord: Blank Lines Are Not Suppressed in Merge =

Article ID: 77982

Article Last Modified on 11/16/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Word 2.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 2.0a
 * Microsoft Office Word 2003
 * Microsoft Word 2.0c
 * Microsoft Word 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 6.0a
 * Microsoft Word 6.0c
 * Microsoft Word 95 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 95a
 * Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q77982



SYMPTOMS
In Word for Windows, if you try to suppress a blank line in a mail merge document containing a field that may or may not contain data, and a paragraph mark follows the field in the merge document, Word suppresses the blank line. However, if a newline character follows the field, the blank line is not suppressed.

If the field does not have the keyword MERGEFIELD, the line will also not be suppressed when there is no data for the field. For example:

{MERGEFIELD first}

{last}

Hello World!

If the &quot;last&quot; field does not have any data in it, the blank line will be printed. If the &quot;first&quot; field does not contain data, the blank line will be suppressed.



MORE INFORMATION
The Mail Merge command (Print Merge, in Word 2.x) includes the option to automatically suppress blank lines created by empty data fields, including the blank line created by a linefeed. This feature allows you to preserve the option to include a blank line after a field that may or may not contain data.

When you set up labels using the Maillabl.dot template in Word 2.x or Word 6.x, you should always select New Paragraph rather than New Line in the Layout Mailing Labels dialog box. This ensures that Word can suppress blank lines.

The Maillabl.dot is not intended for use in Word 7.0 or Word 97.

