WD97: How to Use Nested IF Fields in a Mail Merge Document

In Word, you can use the IF field to obtain customized mail merge results. By nesting IF fields, as described in this article, you can obtain conditional mail merge results and logically construct the equivalent of Boolean AND and OR statements.

The IF field syntax is as follows: where TrueResult and FalseResult can be either text or a nested IF field. If you do not include the FalseResult argument, Word returns nothing if the result is false.

Conditional Mail Merge Results Using IF Field

In the following example, each form letter requests that its recipient attend a meeting on a different date, based on the city field.

Data Document: Main Document: Merged Results:

Using IF Field to Perform Boolean AND and OR Operations

The IF field does not directly support Boolean AND and OR operations in a mail merge. However, the logical AND and OR operators are actually just abbreviations of nested IF statements; therefore, you can construct the equivalent of Boolean AND and OR operations using the following syntax:

• OR: Position the second test inside the second set of quotation marks.
  
  {IF test1 "TrueResult" "{IF test2 "TrueResult" "FalseResult"}"}
  
  
• AND: Position the second test inside the first set of quotation marks.
  
  {IF test1 "{IF test2 "TrueResult" "FalseResult"}" "FalseResult"}

Constructing a Boolean AND Statement

This AND statement can be translated to an IF statement for use in a mail merge as follows:

Constructing a Boolean OR Statement

This OR statement can be translated to an IF statement for use in a mail merge as follows: