# Mail Merge LEFT Function



## marka87uk (Feb 10, 2009)

Hi,

Is it possible to use a Left type of function in a Word mail-merge to ask in an If statement, 'does the first 6 characters of a string contain "Parent"'?

I know I could simply add a new field in Excel to do this, but it would be more simple for me to achieve this in Word, rather than alter numerous spreadsheets.

Thanks


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## Macropod (Feb 10, 2009)

Hi marka87uk,

There's no 'LEFT' field function, but you can get around this with field coding like:
{IF«MyField»= "Parent*" "True Text" "False Text"}
where «MyField» is the mergefield you're testing.

Note: The field brace pairs (ie '{ }') for the above example are created via Ctrl-F9 - you can't simply type them or copy & paste them from this message. Likwise, you can't type the chevrons (ie '« »') - they're part of the actual mergefields, which you can insert from the mailmerge toolbar.

Cheers


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## marka87uk (Feb 11, 2009)

Thanks, worked perfectly!


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## kings009 (Feb 23, 2009)

Thanks Macropod,
good information about Mail Merge
Can you show me the full steps of mail merge.. i follow all the steps but something is wrong then the result is not perfect, please show me full steps...
thanks in advance...


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## Macropod (Feb 23, 2009)

Hi kings009,

Have you tried using Word's mailmerge wizard? It takes you through all the steps.

What type of merge are you doing? The steps are different for each type.

What exactly is your problem? Without details I'd just be guessing at what help you need.

Cheers


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