--- Sheet.java.org	Sat Jun 15 13:40:30 2002
+++ Sheet.java	Thu Oct 10 14:05:40 2002
@@ -350,9 +350,10 @@
     }
 
     public int getNumMergedRegions()
-    {
-        return merged.getNumAreas();
-    }
+	{
+	    return merged!=null ? merged.getNumAreas() : 0;
+	}
+
 
     /**
      * This is basically a kludge to deal with the now obsolete Label records.  If