Merge Fields Don't Merge!

[supremo]

For some reason the merge fields listed below won't merge when there's no data in the first name 2 and last name 2 line. This is what the layout has:

<<First Name>> <<Last Name>>

<<First Name 2>> <<Last Name 2>>

<<Business Name>>

<<Street Address>>

<<City>>, <<State>> <<Zip>>

I went through and if I take out either the <<first name 2>> field or the <<last name 2>> field then when blank it will correctly squish the Company up to the top name line. But with both in there it will give me a space. We also went in and made sure there wasn't just a space or a carriage return here and there in the fields but that's not the problem. I also saw that there's an update for Filemaker Pro 6 that 'solves' this problem but we are already using 6v4 (the supposedly corrected version).

Other thing I tried was that originally the second name line was <<second first name>> and likewise for the last name. I thought they were too long and that was messing it up somehow but no, that wasn't it either!

Phew, long message for a seemingly simple question!

Oh, I'm using the Avery 5160 label... and I tried a different longer label just to see, but that didn't work either.

Thanks in advance for any help you might have to offer! I did a search here but couldn't seem to find my answer. Hasn't anyone else dealt with this?

[Lee Smith]

Please update your profile to reflect which Platform, Operating System and version of FileMaker you are using.

The link is just below your name [color:"blue"] "profile" to the left.

Lee

[-Queue-]

Are the fields all in one text block or individually entered on the layout?

[supremo]

What I did was I just used the create a layout with the business card template. The window that comes up next lets you double click the fields you want and enters them in between the <<>> for you. All I had to do was enter the appropriate carriage returns and spaces.

I did go into the layout mode after with the text tool and it did let me select the whole body with that so I'd guess that means they're in the same text box. It won't let me create a new text box on that layout either.

[supremo]

Wow, I must have you guys stumped...I'm suprised no one else has had to deal with this before.

Do any of you know of a IRC channel that has some people around who can help in a live chat? I tried #filemaker but it didn't seem to be very active.

[supremo]

Just a quick thought - is there a way to make a single field that displays the info from two others?

If I could make a field that took first name 2 and last name 2 and put them together with a space in between it might solve my problem. Like I said earlier, when I just have one field for the second line then it merges all the fields correctly.

i.e. <<whole name 2>> = <<first name 2>> <<last name 2>>

Is this possible?

[-Queue-]

You do have a space between the fields, and it makes sense why. You don't want to see a name like FredSmith; you want Fred Smith. I would suggest either making a calculated field of Trim(First Name 2 & " " & Last Name 2) and using this as your merge field or making the space a calculated field of Case( not (IsEmpty(First Name 2) or IsEmpty(Last Name 2)), " " ) and putting this in place of the space between the two fields.

[supremo]

Great! That was just the ticket -Queue-! Thanks for your help!