<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Printing a mail merge

FreeOffice: Mail merge is not included in SoftMaker FreeOffice.

Once you have created a mail merge and selected the desired records from the database, you can let TextMaker merge the two and print the mail merge.

To do so, use the command File | Print merge in the group Print rather than the usual command File | Print.

Alternatively: Mailings | group Print | Print merge.

For more information about this command, see Printing a mail merge.

Automatic suppression of superfluous blank spaces

If, when printing, TextMaker encounters two database fields that are separated by one or more spaces, it automatically suppresses those spaces if the first of the two database fields is empty.

An example: You have inserted fields for first and last names into the text and have separated them with a space:

{First name} {Name1}

By default, TextMaker prints the first name, a space and the last name at this point. If the {First name} field is empty for a record, however, TextMaker prints only the last name and does not print the space that has become superfluous.

Automatic suppression of empty lines with database fields

If a line of text contains only one or more database fields separated by spaces or tabs, the entire line is omitted if these database fields do not contain content.

An example – your mail merge contains the following section of text:

{First name} {Name1}

{Name2}

{Address}

{City}, {Postal code}

If the {Name2} field is empty for a record, TextMaker automatically removes the resulting blank line. Thus, it prints the first and last names followed by the street on the next line.

If both {First name} and {Name1} were empty, this line would be completely suppressed.

Preventing the automatic suppression of blank spaces

In certain cases, TextMaker's automatic suppression of blank spaces and blank lines may not be desirable. To prevent such suppression, use non-breaking spaces instead of normal spaces. You can insert them with the key combination Ctrl+Shift+Space.

An example – your mail merge contains the following section of text:

{First name}<non-breaking space>{Name1}

Here, the space is printed even if {First name} is empty. Furthermore, the row is not suppressed even if both fields are empty.