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Old February 11th, 2009, 07:48 PM posted to microsoft.public.word.tables
wiersma7[_2_]
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Posts: 6
Default formatting dates

The equation makes sense to me, but when I put it in the Column 2 cell the
return is the equation. Am I missing something on how to place this?
I'm new at doing this in Word (not Excel) so I'm wondering if there's a step
I'm not aware of. I put the exact equation in, except changed the fields to
match my fields (BdayA1, BdayA2, BdayK1, etc.) so for instance:

Column 1 Column 2
Column 3

«Kid1» {IF {Mergefield BdayK1} "" "Birthdate: "}
«BdayK1»
«Adult1» {IF {Mergefield BdayA1} "" "Birthdate: "}
«BdayA1»
«Adult2» {IF {Mergefield BdayA2} "" "Birthdate: "}
«BdayA2»
«Kid1» {IF {Mergefield BdayK1} "" "Birthdate: "}
«BdayK1»
«Kid2» {IF {Mergefield BdayK2} "" "Birthdate: "}
«BdayK2»
«Kid3» {IF {Mergefield BdayK3} "" "Birthdate: "}
«BdayK3»
«Kid4» {IF {Mergefield BdayK4} "" "Birthdate: "}
«BdayK4»
«Kid5» {IF {Mergefield BdayK5} "" "Birthdate: "}
«BdayK5»
«Kid6» {IF {Mergefield BdayK6} "" "Birthdate: "}
«BdayK6»
«Kid7» {IF {Mergefield BdayK7} "" "Birthdate: "}
«BdayK7»

This is what merges:

*George {IF {Mergefield BdayA1} "" "Birthdate: "}
September 24
Martha {IF {Mergefield BdayA2} "" "Birthdate: "}
June 05
Christopher {IF {Mergefield BdayK1} "" "Birthdate: "}
June 02
Daniel {IF {Mergefield BdayK2} "" "Birthdate: "}
March 07
Jesse {IF {Mergefield BdayK3} "" "Birthdate: "}
March 07 (twins)
{IF {Mergefield BdayK4} "" "Birthdate: "}
{IF {Mergefield BdayK5} "" "Birthdate: "}
{IF {Mergefield BdayK6} "" "Birthdate: "}
{IF {Mergefield BdayK7} "" "Birthdate: "}

*names are changed to protect the innocent

Wiersma7



"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
You haven't said how you know whether the adults want their birthdate
withheld, but essentially that second column should have a series of
conditional fields. The following will insert the text Birthdate : in the
second column when the birthday field is not empty. Obviously nothing is
printed in columns one or two when the fields in them are empty.

Column 2
{IF {Mergefield Adult1Bday} "" "Birthdate: "}
{IF {Mergefield Adult2Bday} "" "Birthdate: "}
{IF {Mergefield Kid1Bday} "" "Birthdate: "}
{IF {Mergefield Kid2Bday} "" "Birthdate: "}
{IF {Mergefield Kid3Bday} "" "Birthdate: "}
{IF {Mergefield Kid4Bday} "" "Birthdate: "}
{IF {Mergefield Kid5Bday} "" "Birthdate: "}
{IF {Mergefield Kid6Bday} "" "Birthdate: "}
{IF {Mergefield Kid7Bday} "" "Birthdate: "}

If however you have a second field that logs whether the adult birthdays,
though present in the data, are to be withheld then you need for the first
two rows in

Column 2
{ IF{ Mergefield Adult1Bday } "" "{ IF{ Mergefield Adult1HideBday } =
" " "Birthdate: " "" }" ""}
{ IF{ Mergefield Adult2Bday } "" "{ IF{ Mergefield Adult2HideBday } =
" " "Birthdate: " "" }" ""}

Column 3
{ IF{ Mergefield Adult1HideBday } " " "{ Mergefield Adult1Bday }" }
{ IF{ Mergefield Adult2HideBday } " " "{ Mergefield Adult2Bday }" }

All fieldnames should reflect the actual field names. The { Mergefield
Adult1HideBday } and { Mergefield Adult2HideBday } are expected to have
no content when the adult does not mind the birthdate being shown - change
the condition as appropriate. Spaces and quotes are as shown. The bracket
pairs {} are all placed with CTRL+F9


--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Wiersma7 wrote:
Actually I want to do this with a non merged cell content. I have
'Kid1' as a merged field all the way through 'Kid7". That is the
largest number of children in a family of the church. Most families,
however, have 1 - 4 children. I need to have the label 'Birthday:'
before each birth date of each child (as well as the adults). What I
want to happen is:
1. If I have no data or the adult does not want his/her birthdate
published, I do not want the label 'Birthdate:' to appear
before an empty cell/field.

2. I do not want the label 'Birthdate:' to appear when there is no
child name/birthday field info.

For instance: my table has 3 columns:
John Birthdate: January 1
Sally Birthdate: February 1
Kid3 Birthdate:
Kid4 Birthdate:
Kid5 Birthdate:
Kid6 Birthdate:
Kid7 Birthdate:

The Kid3 - 7 fields will be blank because they only have 2 kids. The
Birthday fields will be blank for same reason. The text/label
'Birthdate:' however is static. I need the label/text to disappear.

I tried putting { IF { MERGEFIELD BdaykK3 } = "" ""} in the
'Birthdate:' cell, but all I get is MERGEFIELD.

Is this a possibility or am I going to have to do it manually?
(really need a database, I know - but not in budget right now).
Thanks for even taking the time to figure out what I just typed
wiersma7


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
Yes, you need an IF field for this. Although Word makes it
relatively easy to insert IF fields in merge documents (using the
Insert Word Field button), it makes it quite difficult to actually
insert merge fields in them, so it's usually easier to create them
from scratch. 1. Press Ctrl+F9 to insert a field, which will be
represented by two
braces around two spaces, with the insertion point in the center.

2. Between the braces type IF, then use the keyboard and the Insert
Merge Field button to create the following field:

{ IF { MERGEFIELD BdayA1 } = "" "" "{ MERGEFIELD BdayA1 }" }

Alternatively, you can use:

{ IF { MERGEFIELD BdayA1 } "" "{ MERGEFIELD BdayA1 }" }

The first tells Word, if the data field is blank, to insert nothing,
otherwise to insert the merge data. The second tells Word to insert
the merge data if the data field is not blank.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"Wiersma7" wrote in message
...
Yay! It makes sense now. Thanks so much!

Also, is there way to have a conditional rule (?) to only print the
text: 'Birthday:' if there is a date in the date field?
Below is the simple table (obviously I'm making a directory - for my
church):

«Adult1»
Birthday:
«BdayA1»

Cell:
«CellA1»

Email:
«EmailA1»

Anniversary:
«Anniversary»






Thanks so much for all of your help!
wiersma7


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
You press Alt+F9 to display the field code of your merge field
(such as «BdayA1», which will show { MERGEFIELD BdayA1 }) and add
the switch to that field.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"Wiersma7" wrote in message
...
The table has merge fields from an Excel spreadsheet. I
understand the premise of what the [below address: http:
//www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm] is about - but I'm
not sure how to incorporate that into my table. Do I add the
switch as a field to the spreadsheet? To the table? That doesn't
seem to work. I guess I'm asking if you can simplify it for me. I
would like to change the format of 01/01/09 to January 1. (btw -
I do know how to do it in Excel )

Also, is there way to have a conditional rule (?) to only print
the text: 'Birthday:' if there is a date in the date field?
Below is the simple table (obviously I'm making a directory - for
my church):

«Adult1»
Birthday:
«BdayA1»

Cell:
«CellA1»

Email:
«EmailA1»

Anniversary:
«Anniversary»





Thanks very much for your help so far,
wiersma7


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
If the table was created via a mail merge, you can add a numeric
picture switch to the merge field to constrain the display (see
http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm).
Alternatively, you can link to Excel using DDE instead of OLE
DB, which will preserve the native Excel formatting.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"Wiersma7" wrote in message
...
I have a table that has birthday dates. The info in the table
was imported from Excel with the dates formatted as 'mmmm dd'.
However, they imported as I entered them: mm/dd/yy. I don't
want the years to show. How can I format these dates in my
table to reflect only the Birth Date? (rather than going
through each record) Thanks,
wiersma7