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Old 03-23-2017, 05:11 AM
Kimu Kimu is offline Windows 7 32bit Office 2007
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Default Is there a simpler way to get the first 2 characters of a field to appear in a mail merge?

Hello

I'm doing a mail merge, and one of the fields is called 'Staff ID'. The data in this field appears as JSMITH, KBROWN, EJONES, etc. I would like this data to appear just as the initials of the staff name, e.g. JS, KB, EJ, etc. In other words, I'd like it to show just the first two characters of this field.

At the moment, I am using "if... then... else" clauses:

{ IF { MERGEFIELD Staff_ID } = "JSMITH" "JS"
{ IF { MERGEFIELD Staff_ID } = "KBROWN" "KB"
{ IF { MERGEFIELD Staff_ID } = "EJONES" "EJ"
"blank" }"}"}

However, this is not ideal as I have to update the mail merge template every time a new person arrives, and there are already about 15 different staff. (I've just used 3 here as an example.) Also, this merged field appears in a table with a narrow column, so it is difficult to see and edit the full merged field text.

So my question is, is there a simpler way to force the mail merge to show only the first two characters of this field?

I've tried looking through this forum for answers to similar questions, but the only one that I could find just suggested the method that I'm currently using...

I'd be very grateful for any help that anyone can offer!

Thank you

Kim
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