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Supressing Blank Lines in a Word 2007 Mail Merge

Posted by: Administrator on: January 11 2008 • Categorized in: Office 2007,Word
  • In earlier versions of Word, you were easily able to suppress the blank lines in a mail merge. In Word 2007, it does not seem to automatically do this.Say for example, you have a data file with Address 1, Address 2, and Address 3. When you add the fields to your merge document, they look something like this:

    «Address 1»
    «Address 2»
    «Address 3»
    «City», «State» «Zip»

    • File Formats: New vs. Old

    Posted by: Administrator on: May 15 2007 • Categorized in: Office 2007

    By default, Office 2007 saves files in new XML-based formats. Word uses the .docx and .docm extensions. Docx files do not support macros, while docm files are macro-enabled. Presumably, this is to cut down on the number of viruses aimed at Word documents.

    Similarly, Excel uses the .xlsx and .xlsm extensions, and PowerPoint uses the .pptx and .pptm extensions. Access has also changed its file format to an XML-based format, using the .accdb extension.

    However, the new formats are not backward-compatible. Therefore, people using any older versions of Office will not be able to open files saved in the new formats. Since it will be some time before a majority of users have Office 2007, we recommend saving files in the old formats if you intend to distribute them to other users.
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    To save an Office 2007 file in an older format:

    1. Click the Office button.
    2. Select Save As.
    3. At the bottom of the dialog box, under Save as type:, select Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc).

    File Save As - old format

    Save Files as PDF’s in Office 2007

    Posted by: Administrator on: May 15 2007 • Categorized in: Office 2007

    Office 2007 now lets you save any document, presentation or spreadsheet as a PDF (without having to purchase Adobe Acrobat). However, you have to download a plug-in to add this functionality.

    You can download the free plugin from Microsoft at:

    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4D951911-3E7E-4AE6-B059-A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en

    After you have downloaded the plug-in, to save a file as a PDF, click the Office button and select Save As | PDF or XPS.

    Hiding the #DIV/0! Message

    Posted by: Administrator on: January 29 2007 • Categorized in: Excel

    If you are working with a formula that may refer to a blank cell or otherwise generate an error message, you can use a combination of the IF-THEN-ELSE and the ISERROR function to handle the #DIV/0! or other error messages that may appear.

    The IF-THEN-ELSE has 3 parts: the condition, the TRUE condition, the FALSE condition. The following formula tests A1 for the number 100. If it is found, the cell displays the contents of A1. If it is not found, it multiplies another cell (B1) by 2:

    =IF(A1=100,A1,B1*2)

    By using one of the ISERROR functions, you can test for an error condition and use the IF statement to display a message or nothing at all. The common IS functions are ISERR, which returns TRUE for any error value except #N/A and ISERROR, which returns TRUE for any error value (#N/A, #VALUE!, #REF!, #DIV/0!, #NUM!, #NAME?, or #NULL!).

    Suppose a cell is going to contain the average of several cells. If the cells are empty, the result will be division by zero and the #DIV/0! error will appear. The following formula will take care of this condition:

    =IF(ISERR(AVERAGE(A1:A10)),”No Data”,AVERAGE(A1:A10))

    If the formula AVERAGE(A1:A10) returns an error (most likely because there are no numbers in the range), the cell will display the words “No Data”. If there is no error, the cell will display the results of AVERAGE(A1:A10).

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