Omit blank data fields

[barbBear]

Hello,

I have looked through the support material online.

I'm trying to data merge envelope addresses. Some addresses have multiple lines and some don't. I have broken up the data into multiple fields.

Address1

Address2

I would like address 2 to be omitted if there is no content; that includes the return/linefeed character. I have used this in Quark and InDesign. They have a check button to omit blank fields (and the return character). Is this available in Affinity?

Best wishes,

Barb.

 

[walt.farrell]

20 minutes ago, barbBear said:

Is this available in Affinity?

Unfortunately, no.

If, rather than a blank field, you could put some pre-defined text in the field, you could fix up the generated file later using Find and Replace. For example, if you used @@@BLANK@@@ when the field was blank, then you could do something like this after running the Merge:

Find: @@@BLANK@@@. (make sure the Find options are set to Regular Expression, and use the Regular Expression option "Dot matches Paragraph Break"
and then empty the Replace field. Find will find them all, and Replace will replace each one that you want to (or Replace All will replace all at once).

[Old Bruce]

I messed about with this quite a while back and can only dimly recall the steps.

The following comes with many caveats. First you need to find both the longest and shortest string of text in each of the Address 1 field. This is to give a Frame Text Text Frame its width, we don't want a Text Frame that is too wide nor do we want one too narrow.

Place the <Address 1> field and then a Tab (set tabs to a zero width) and then the <Address 2> field and now a paragraph return or new line. This will (most often) bump the <Address 2> field down to a new line. If there is no second field then the tab and return will result in one line then a second for the third line.

<Address 1><tab><Address 1><return or line break>

<third field>

 

Resulting in <Apt one> <123 1st street> <Anytown> 

Apt one

123 1st street

Anytown 

 

or  <Apt one> <NOTHING HERE AT ALL> <Anytown> gives

Apt one

Anytown 

 

or  <NOTHING HERE AT ALL> <123 1st street> <Anytown> gives 

123 1st street

Anytown

[barbBear]

THAT is some creative problem-solving.

Thanks. : )