Char (10) in Mail Merge

[EatMoreBacon]

When I'm doing a mail merge, Affinity doesn't seem to recognize Char 10 (line break).

I also tried Char 13 which some say works on Mac (I'm on Windows), but that didn't work any better.

What do I input in my spreadsheet to indicate a line break that Affinity Publisher will recognize?

[lacerto]

Data Merge no longer recognizes any line break input (Excel-based, or hard coded Chr(10) or Chr(13)). The only workaround I know is using any custom code, e.g. <br> and then use Find Replace in Publisher to replace occurrences of <br> with the desired line break (e.g. both line and paragraph break are supported as codes in the Replace box).

[R C-R]

9 hours ago, lacerto said:

Data Merge no longer recognizes any line break input...

Does that mean it once did so maybe this is a regression that should be reported as a bug?

[lacerto]

7 hours ago, R C-R said:

Does that mean it once did so maybe this is a regression that should be reported as a bug?

I think it has been reported. Hard-coded LFs and CRs might be something that cause problems e.g. within CSV files so maybe they are now deliberately ignored/stripped (earlier they were not). 

[lacerto]

I had a closer look on this, and the linefeeds are not actually stripped, but simply just do not take effect. So my assumption on them being stripped to avoid issues in processing text streams was wrong.

So, in version 1, this is what happens (CR = control code 13, hex OD, would probably work on macOS, while LF = control code 10, works on Windows), both in actual text boxes and labels previewing data in the Fields panel:

....while in version 2 (this, too, from Windows), the line feed codes are clearly part of the text stream but just do not have the line feed functionality:

As shown above, the LF control code, when entered manually in a text box, still works fine, so it seems to be a deliberate act of ignoring the effect when line feeds are part of the data merge feature. Perhaps it is some kind of glitch, after all.

[EatMoreBacon]

So in any case, till the powers that be change something, I will need to use codes that I find and replace after the merge?

Or is Alt 010 something that can be inserted in Excel?

[lacerto]

1 hour ago, EatMoreBacon said:

I will need to use codes that I find and replace after the merge?

Yes, if you use 2.x versions.

1 hour ago, EatMoreBacon said:

Or is Alt 010 something that can be inserted in Excel?

No, Num keys do not seem to work in Excel cells (basically using CHAR code or ALT+ENTER does the same within an Excel cell).

[Dominik Bucheli]

This is a big minus in the Affinity V2 suite. In V1 Data merge worked like a charm. Now in V2 you have to do some find an replace Hacks, if you want to have Linebreaks in data merge fields. I hope, that this issue get fixed soon.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Data merge ignores line breaks in CSV, TSV, JSON" (REF: AF-733) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.0.3027). The fix is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.