I have a document, in Word 2007, which uses merge fields to pull information from a Case Management Database. The problematic mergefield pulls in a single line of text which has an address in it.



The field is «Case_BC_I1_13»
Which, for example, fills in a spot in the letter as: 1 Example Street, Example Town, Example County, Post Code.


In the form document the field is bolded, as it is part of a subject line. But the problem is that when the document is merged the line of text is formatted as:
1 Example Street, Example Town, Example County, Post Code.

The latter part doesn't bold and I cannot figure out how to make the whole sentence bold. I'm sure it's a switch or something that I'm not aware of. Can anyone suggest anything?


Thanks!!

Hi Welshie,

To control the mailmerge string formatting, add a 'Charformat' picture switch to the mergefield as follows:
• select the mergefield;
• press Shift-F9 to expose the field coding. It should look something like {MERGEFIELD Case_BC_I1_13}, where 'Case_BC_I1_13' is your data field's name;
• delete everything between 'Case_BC_I1_13' and the closing field brace;
• add ' \* Charformat' after 'Case_BC_I1_13', so that you end up with {MERGEFIELD Case_BC_I1_13 \* Charformat};
• format at least the 'M' in 'MERGEFIELD' with the font attributes you want;
• position the cursor anywhere in the field and press F9 to update it.
• run your mailmerge.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Hmm, I tried that and now the Case Management software reads it as an invalid code. I suspect it's the CM software that's screwing up the formatting, so I will give their helpdesk a call.

Thanks for trying though Macropod.

That suggests your CM software isn't performing a mailmerge, but is instead simply using the mergefields as placeholders. In that case, you should be able to obtain the desired result by defining an appropriate Character Style, then applying that Style to the mergefield and whatever character follows it.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Yes, that worked, thanks Macropod (as always)!