Basic Mail Merge Assistance

[cully1234]

Hi,

I'm pretty new to mail merging using an excel spread sheet but the data I have has gaps in it so I am struggling to get a consistent merge.

I have 3 fields I wish to merge into my word doc. My excel sheet has "TITLE" "FIRST NAME" "SURNAME"

However....some records do not have data in them. In an ideal situation I wish to compose the letter so it reads "Mr John Smith" but I could also get away with "Mr Smith" if needs be. For any one who does not have a FIRST NAME or SURNAME I am to using a job title which I have populated in the excel so it replaces the name.

When I create the first line of my intro to my letter I am using Dear <<TITLE>> <<FIRST NAME>><<SURNAME>>. Can someone please explain how I can create custom text for those records which have the job title as it cannot read "Dear Managing Director" for example.....

Is there a simple rule that can be applied to the fields in the intro?

Thanks

[martindwilson]

look here you can make mailmerge use a different field if blank using if
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/mailmerge/mmergeiffields.htm