Hi all, this is my first ever post in the forums! Here is my situation and I hope someone can help since I have spent hours trying to figure this out. Thanks.



Here's some background info: A major component of my job is to fill in multiple forms with much redundant information. I am in the process of perfecting this process. So far I have created a database in an Excel table that allows me to pull from and reference in a mail merge. Each database is it's own project, and each row of data corresponds to a different property owner. That I have no problems with. Each form is saved and even has some conditional formatting and such.

It works well but my complaint is I have to manually select different forms based on various criteria or delete unused ones and i want to automate the process. So I have created a new template with quick parts for each of the forms saved and have put a series of conditional if statements in the mail merge document that inserts the appropriate forms. So when I scroll to the next record, it only shows me the relevant forms for that situation (Ex: record one may show forms 1, 2, and 3; while record 2 may show only form 4).

Here's the issue I run into: When testing this new mail merge template, the if statements populate the body of the each form perfectly - the formatting of the header and footer is where my issues are. Word inserts extra sections within each form without rhyme or reason which messes up page numbering, or sometimes doesn't even populate a header or footer at all. When I delete all the data on the sheet and insert whichever form I need, everything works well, but when I try and automate it, things go south. The only thing I can think of is the way I am saving the building blocks.

Sorry this is so long but I wanted to be clear and fully explain my situation. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

The apparently-random Section-break insertion probably has to do with the way you've defined the building blocks. In any event, with a mailmerge, there's no need to use them - all your variable content can be embedded directly into the IF fields, even if the result for an if field might encompass text, tables and graphics spanning more than one page.

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