Works: Character Formatting Lost When Printing Form Letters (87629)

SUMMARY

In version 2.x of Microsoft Works for Windows, if you merge a Word Processor module form letter document with a Database module document that contains blank fields, custom character formatting such as bold, italic, or the point size may be lost from the body of the form letter. Character formatting will be lost either for the entire print job or until the merge finds a record where all data fields are full. If the fields in the subsequent records are full, the formatting for the rest of the print merge will be printed correctly.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Works for Windows version 2.0 and 2.0a. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Works for Windows version 3.0.

WORKAROUND

To retain character formatting in a merge document where some records in the database document are blank, do one of the following:

Reset all character formatting in the form letter to the default settings. -or-
Print the database in two batches:
1. Open your database document.
2. From the Select menu, choose Sort Records. In the First Field box, type the name of the field that contains the blank records. (Sorting this way will place the records with blank fields at the end of the record list.)
3. Select the records that contain blank fields.
4. From the Select menu, choose Hide. (These hidden records will not be accessed in the print merge.)
5. In the Word Processor module, open your form letter document and perform the print merge.
6. From the Select menu, choose Switch Hidden Records to display the records with empty fields and hide the records without empty fields.
7. In the Word Processor module document (the form letter), delete the placeholder for the blank field.
8. Perform the print merge again. No blank lines or spaces will occur, and the formatting will be intact.