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Subject:Re: Condition text in Word (2000) From:dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 10 Jan 2002 16:56:30 -0800
Chuck Martin wrote:
>
> ...I want to create conditional text in Word, and then be able to
> control when it does and doesn't appear. The goal is to create one document
> to cover multiple, similar products.
I did that very thing--four manuals from one .doc file--in late 1989 using Word for Windows 2.0, and I do the same thing now on a smaller scale--minor text differences depending on version--using Word 2000. Like many things in Word, it works, with a few limitations.
(A couple of those limitations are not including a paragraph mark in the conditional text and not using page-range index entries in the conditional text.)
Win Day's suggestion of mail merge is on the nose--mail merge is where Word "hides" conditional text, because that's how MS envisioned it being used, way back when ("if there's no first name, use 'Dear' with the honorific and last name, but if there's no last name, use 'Dear friend'; or "if the address is in Arizona, mention the sales tax and free shipping"; that sort of thing).
You'll be using SET and IF fields to specify and check the value of bookmarks (used here like variables in a computer program) and to insert snippets of text that vary depending on the bookmark's value.
You can find examples in the online help, but remember to look under "mail merge" or the SET and IF field names.
--David
=============================
David M. Brown - Brown Inc.
dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com
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