merging blank fields -- best practice?

[paleolith]

I plan to print labels using the AfPub merge feature. The CSV file will be exported from other software, and often contains blank lines. Fer example, an address might sometimes have two lines:

      Charles Edwards
      2014 Elm St
      PO Drawer G
      Anytown, FL

but if that second line is blank, the result is

      Charles Edwards
      2014 Elm St
      
      Anytown, FL

I can of course handle this with an extra step, to replace consecutive commas with single commas. The software I used previously has a "slide up" feature to do this internally.

Is there any feature in AfPub that's better than doing the comma replacement in a text editor?

[thomaso]

What feature could that be for instance? (APub does not have an automatic "slide up" feature like your previous software.)

If I understand correctly, and assume the structure is "Name", "Street 1", "Street 2", "City", you want the entire contents of the "City" field to be cut and pasted into the "Street 2" field BUT ONLY IF the "Street 2" field has no entry or is empty, – correct? Even if we could script this for APub or create the query for Find & Replace via REGEX, it seems a lot more complicated or cumbersome than simply replacing two commas with one.

So what advantage do you want to achieve – or: how would you like to handle or feed such a new feature in APub?

(In APub you could use Find & Replace after the merge to replace two consecutive paragraph breaks with a single one. But, imho, this has no advantage over the comma replacement before merging)

[paleolith]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

what advantage do you want to achieve

If such a feature existed, I would save a little time over and over. And learn something about AfPub.

Thanks for the confirmation that I'm better off just doing the extra step with the CSV file.

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, paleolith said:

If such a feature existed, I would save a little time over and over.

What feature exactly? "If there are double commas, ignore one", … just as Find & Replace can do with "Replace All"?

Considering that APub can use not only text-based data sources but also spreadsheet file types (e.g. Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, LibreOffice), a simple comma replacement feature might not work as desired. Also, I assume that there are layouts where empty entries should be preserved, and others with only some of them. Making such a feature work for everyone may require different settings, and it may not be quite as simple as "if there are double commas, ignore one."

[paleolith]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

What feature exactly?

"It this text box contains no text, reposition text boxes below to close up the space."

That's what Filemaker Pro does, in different terminology. Version 3 ... originally installed from a 1997 CD. The installer no longer runs because it's a 16-bit program, but the installation is trivial, just put a couple of files in the right places. Mostly still works, never wanted to upgrade because I only use it for simple things like my address book. I need to migrate to something else, but as long as it's working, squeakier wheels get the grease.

[thomaso]

6 hours ago, paleolith said:

"It this text box contains no text, reposition text boxes below to close up the space."

Unfortunately I don't know Filemaker workflow details but in APub your description seems to require a separate text frame for each single entry which then may get automatically moved by APub after the merge was generated.

Not only can this mean additional steps in frame creation (-> more work, not less, for those who use one text frame only for multiple entries), but it may also not make sense as a general feature or an on/off-option if individual handling of empty entries is required or desired anyway.

In the example below the "function" field should be kept even if it is empty, while the "phone 2" field should be visually removed and replaced with "email" to avoid an empty line. This would require a more complex if-then query than just moving or deleting each empty entry or line of text. In a catalog layout, this can get more complex if the different records differ more or if an image should be placed for some but not all records.

Nevertheless, you can create a feature request in the Feedback forum if wanted with or without a link to this thread. There are quite a few with data merge already and possibly some regarding empty data source entries, like this for instance (which, conversely, seems to demand that Affinity respect empty entries more rather than ignore them).

[paleolith]

Thanks for all the comments and info. This isn't worth a new feature, since there's another way to accomplish what I need.