Merge Field problem

Question

Level 1

16 points

Merge Field problem

I have created a letter in Pages 09 with merge fields for First Name, Middle Name, Last Name. But some of my contacts in Address Book do not have middle names. On those contacts I end up with the text "Middle Name" in the letter.

Is there a way to set this up so that if the contact does not have a middle name, it inputs the fields correctly (showing no text in the 'Middle Name' field), but of course showing the middle name correctly with the contacts that do in fact have middle names?

I would appreciate any suggestions for those that have more experience with this.

Thanks, Flash

G5, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jan 27, 2009 4:51 PM

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Answer 1

flashgj Author

Level 1

16 points

Jan 29, 2009 8:44 AM in response to flashgj

No one has a solution for this?

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Answer 2

Jan 29, 2009 8:48 AM in response to flashgj

I gave it some thought and came up with a work around.

Let it merge, then prior to printing do a search on "Middle Name" and replace it with a space or nothing whichever works in your layout.

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Answer 3

flashgj Author

Level 1

16 points

Jan 30, 2009 7:24 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

Peter, Thanks for the input. That is an idea that I had not thought of. I wish the program would just leave it blank if that field is empty in Address Book, but doing a search and replace is better that going through dozens of merged layouts and fixing the problem by hand.

Thanks....

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Answer 4

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,807 points

Jan 30, 2009 8:03 AM in response to flashgj

I am really surprised.

I never used this field so it's not filled in my AddressBook.

I tested a merge operation with numerous fields whose where never filled.

I didn't got the described behavior.

But maybe it's because I'm running 10.4.11.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 30 janvier 2009 17:03:09)

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Answer 5

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,807 points

Jan 30, 2009 8:25 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

I'm back after testing under 10.5.6

I was unable to reproduce the described behavior.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 30 janvier 2009 17:24:58)

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Answer 6

flashgj Author

Level 1

16 points

Jan 31, 2009 7:28 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

Yvan,

Maybe I am doing something wrong. I have created a form letter that goes out to professionals (mostly doctors), I therefore have created merge fields for middle names and also a suffix, ie.. MD, PHD etc.

When I merge from Address book, those without a middle name have 'middle name' and those without a suffix have 'suffix' in the merged fields.

Yvan, maybe you could give me a step by step of how you created your merge fields in Pages. Maybe it is different than how I created mine and this difference is what is causing my problem.

Thanks

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Answer 7

flashgj Author

Level 1

16 points

Feb 3, 2009 7:23 AM in response to flashgj

I have solved the problem somewhat. If I do a "mail merge" then the fields are field in correctly and everything works great. This is probably what Yvan experienced in his testing.

If I drag one Address Book card to the document to fill in the merge fields, then I get the field identifier text, ie. "Middle Name", if that name does not have a middle name.

Kind of strange that it works if doing a Mail Merge but handles things differently if dragging names from Address Book.

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Answer 8

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,807 points

Feb 3, 2009 9:40 AM in response to flashgj

You are right, I used the Mail Merge feature with a small category.

Nothing strange at all.

The program does exactly what it is designed to do.

Page 240 in the Pages User Guide we may read:

To insert merge data for one contact using Address Book or vCard:
1 Select the contact’s Address Book card or vCard and drag it to a merge field.
The contact’s data appears in all the merge fields throughout the document. _If the card doesn’t contain data for one of the merge fields, the field label continues to be displayed._

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE mardi 3 février 2009 18:40:25)

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Answer 9

GraceLS

Level 1

8 points

Feb 3, 2009 10:54 AM in response to flashgj

Another option, if you want to continue using the "drag-and-drop" mail merge would be to put the first and middle names into the First Name field, thus leaving all the Middle Name fields blank, and putting in Mr., Dr. etc. into the Title field.

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Answer 10

flashgj Author

Level 1

16 points

Feb 3, 2009 3:00 PM in response to GraceLS

Since I used an existing Excel spreadsheet to import all 400+ names into Address Book, it would be a big pain in the neck to go back and edit all the fields to work around the drag and drop problem. As long as the Mail Merge function does it correctly, then I am fine with that.

I was totally confused when the drag and drop method left unused field names, thinking that mail merge would do the same thing, thankfully it does not.

Thanks to all for your input.

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Answer 11

Christ B

Level 1

0 points

Mar 31, 2009 1:08 AM in response to flashgj

Dear Flash,
I came across the same problem, if you are using a drag and drop of one single address, you will indeed see the name of the merge field instead of data, when the data is empty. The solution I found useful is to create in the address book a separate list which you call for example "mailing list". Drag the single record to this list. Open Pages, with your letter or template using the merge fields, select edit>Mail Merge... Select Address Book, and select the list which you just made "mailing list".
This should do the trick.

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