Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 36696
Mail Merge features incomplete, missing Hidden Paragraph / Text features
Last modified: 2013-08-07 14:42:26 UTC
This issue of a simple interface to the hidden paragraph feature has been going on for quite a few years now. Even Microsoft Office 95 had this functionality yet it continually is ignored by OOo. Issue 20057 cannot be complete without basic empty line handling Issue 10760 opened 18 months ago is not a duplicate of 20057 but is of this issue. How hard can it be to include a "Tick here to supress blank lines for this field" and /or "Tick here to supress blank lines for entire document"? Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the sudo code for this is along: * Tick Box "Hide blank lines" on GUI which sets HBL Insert Database Field Names routine { if HBL = 1 then insert hiddenparagraph(not($FIELD)).$FIELD else insert $FIELD endif OOo 2 surely can't go out of the door if it can't even match the basic mail merge features of MS 95...
Adding one comment from 10760: ------- Additional comments from ragweed Sat Oct 25 10:33:28 -0800 2003 ------- I'm creating labels using OOo's File->New->Labels feature, but several of my labels have empty field values, and I'd like to suppress their output when I do a mail merge. Currently: -------------- John Doe Something, CA 38924 ------------------------------ What I'd like: ---------------- John Doe Something, CA 38924 ------------------------------ Avery Wizard and MS Word offer a feature like Suppress Blank Lines. Thanks very much for your considering this bug.
*** Issue 10760 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 9435 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Confirmed that UI is absent from 1.9m60
reassigned to HI. Please evaluate.
HI->CJ: Enhancement about the database section is requested.
Please explain what enhancement is needed from the database section... I'd like to help get this major issue sorted but need a few more details. As I saw it this is purely a frontend issue, for every field that is written to the page the wizard justs needs to add HiddenParagaph(condition) to the same line... Or is it the actual Hide Blank Lines option that needs to exist in the DB?
Hi Oliver, I think this is something we should add to OO.o before we release OO.o 2.o. Please ping me for further discussions.
I know we are incredibly close to the 2.0 beta but doesn't anyone other than me see the size of this bug? Corporations (such as mine) will simply not tolerate mail merges that leave blank lines in the letters or labels and secretaries do not have the time or DB understanding to add hidden text or paragraph conditions! Half of my company still use Word 97 and they use it for only one reason: simple mail merges. If OOo2 comes out with this huge hole in functionality compared to Microsoft then it will damage the release badly. CJ > You seemed to recognise the severity of this issue, is there anything you can do to try to sort this?
Target set to OOo 2.01, Prio changed to 3
*** Issue 42615 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
The lack of a simple way to hide blank lines in a mail merge created by empty database fields basically makes OpenOffice almost worthless to, I'd say, 90% + of US secretaries. Every company that I've ever worked for or provided consulting to will not tolerate mail merges with blank lines in the address, etc. In addition, when a mail merge might be 500 to 1500 items, it is not cost effective to hand edit the blank lines out. Since becoming a self-employed computer consultant 2+ years ago, I have consistently had clients reject widespread rollouts of OpenOffice because it is nearly impossible for a non-technical person to send a professional looking (read no blank lines in the address sections of letters, labels, and envelopes) without manual intervention. I am pleading with you to not send OpenOffice 2.0 out the door without fixing this basic functionality issue. The steps required, currently, to hide blank lines in mail merges, labels, and envelopes that are caused by blank fields makes it impossible for all but the most technical to make a decent merge. In case you are not familiar with U.S. mail address conventions, here are two common address label formats and examples. 1. <Title> <FirstName> <MiddleInitial> <LastName> <NameSuffix> <CompanyPosition> <Company> <StreetAddress1> <StreetAddress2> <City>, <State> <Zip> Example Mr. Vaughn L. Reid III Owner Great Big Company 1525 Gregory Street Apt. 227 Anytown, IN 99999 - 9999 2. <Title> <FirstName> <LastName> <NameSuffix> <Company> <StreetAddress1> <StreetAddress2> <City>, <State> <Zip> Mr. Joe Smith Esquire Another Big Company 2344 Big Sky Drive MailStop 44 AnotherTown, IN 34567-3445 It is quite common for an address database to mix records with 2 row (or even 3 row) street addresses with records with 1 row of street addresses. It is also quite common to have a variety of completeness for many records. For example, in a single database some records may both the <CompanyPosition> field and the <Company> filled completed others may have one of those field or neither field. This means, that, using the first address sample, you could have records that look like the ones that follow from a single mail merge. The ones with the blank lines, as you can imagine, are quite unacceptable. Here are some incomplete examples. 1. Mr. Joe Smith 124 Way Anytown, IN 43532 2. Joe Smith Owner P.O. Box 99999 New Castle, IN 47362-4149 3. Mr. Smith Big Company I Want To Impress 123 Blvd. ATown, RI 12345 As you can see, the current mail merge makes my attempts to impress my customers, etc. futile. No one would want to do business with me unless I delve into the mysteries of programming to remove hidden paragraphs or go back and manually edit my 5000 record mail merge. Please fix this extremely important issue before sending OpenOffice 2.0 out the door.
I'd like to second the comment above - decent blank line handling is a critical feature for many office workers. I've deployed OO 2.0 betas for about 50 users, replacing MS Office 97 as part of a rollout of new hardware. I'd have preferred to wait for the final version, but timing was forced on me by external factors, and it was either deploy or buy MS Office XP. Mail merge is by far the largest problem area that's come up. Suppressing blank lines is effectively not possible for normal users, the only work around we have is to create templates with hidden paragraphs set, and tell users that they have to name their data sources appropriately to use the templates, which is not an acceptable solution. Most of them are using old copies of MS Office 97 on machines we haven't retired yet for mail merges. Please, please fix this bug before shipping 2.0. I'd expect my organisation to be representative of the average office, and if this doesn't get sorted, we will have to consider whether or not it's viable to continue with OO. If we don't, I suspect it'll be a long time before we try again.
I have to agree. The inability to handle blank fields attractively is so fundamental that I am surprised this is an enhancement, not a bug. To me it is just plain wrong, not a "nice idea for the future".
If development time and budget prevents fixing this issue before OpenOffice 2.0, please consider adding information to the included mail merge help that describes how to accurately configure the mail merge to suppress blank lines when all the fields on the line are empty. Here are my suggestions to add to the help 1. Place information on the mail merge screen stating that the default behavior of the mail merge wizard is to not suppress blank lines caused by empty fields 2. Place a link in the help that will take someone to the help about inserting hidden paragraphs. 3. Explain in the hidden paragraph help that each line that uses this feature needs to be a separate paragraph. Note: On my OpenOffice 1.9.m22 build it appears that the mail merge wizard inserts paragraph breaks now by default. That's good if that is the case. If not, the instructions in 4 and 5 below need to be included. 4. Note that the mail merge and label wizard do not insert paragraph breaks between lines by default. The user must do that manually. 5. Include instructions explaining to the user that the easiest way to confirm a paragraph return is to a. Turn on hidden characters and b. hit the enter key at the end of each line and then backspace to remove the blank line 6. Include a final step-by-step example of how to set up a mail merge with hidden paragraphs if the fields on the line are blank. A suggestion for this example is how to set up a page of mailing labels.
IMO this is a more general issue than one of hidden paragraphs. In general, fields are not one per line, and correct action needs to be taken if one or more fields on a single line are empty. For example, a line containing a list of, say, children's names may be present in a mailmerged output. Correct action in this case may be inclusion of a separator such as a comma between non-blank items. Or some label text may need inclusion (eg "NAME=doe FIRST=john MIDDLE=james" where any field may be blank and the corresponding label should not appear). The present UI is amazingly difficult to use - and I count myself a technical person. A non-techie will find this impossible - I fully concur with vreid47362's comments. (Additional OT note: merge to file always generates one file per database entry. This is not always desirable, just like empty lines aren't!)
I know you are getting close but this is a major issue, especially as Massachusetts announces moving away from MSO. It simply is impossible for most secretarial level or novice user to use Hidden Paragraphs as it now stands. Norman Prather
Fixed in cws os67 in officecfg/registry/schema/org/openoffice/Office/Writer.xcs officecfg/registry/data/org/openoffice/Office/Writer.xcu sw/source/ui/inc/mmconfigitem.hxx sw/source/ui/dbui/mmconfigitem.cxx sw/source/ui/dbui/mmaddressblockpage.cxx sw/source/ui/dbui/mmaddressblockpage.hrc sw/source/ui/dbui/mmaddressblockpage.hxx sw/source/ui/dbui/mmaddressblockpage.src sw/source/ui/dbui/mmlayoutpage.cxx
I know the target milestone is 2.0.1 but is this workspace already integrated with the RC1 build? Will it make it into the next RC as a "special" bug fix...?
->phillg: Sorry, no and no are the answers.
I've added Issue 56195 as a blocker for this issue. Basically hidden paragraphs do not work properly, the last record test results apply to all records on the page. Although I've waited years for this bug to be fixed, until issue 56195 is resolved this feature is useless :-(
os: Does this new feature need to be delayed until 2.0.2, i.e. when issue 56195 is scheduled to be included? Surely this will be affected by the "form letter wizard printing dialog" that seems to initiate the hidden paragraphs to behave badly. I haven't been able to test this feature as I'm relying on Pavel Janik's builds and as yet it doesn't include os67...
Correct me if I'm wrong but this issue has not been included in the 2.0.1RC1 build has it? Does it need re-opening or re-targetting?
It hasn't been included into OOo 2.0.1 because of missing QA resources Target changed to OOo 2.0.2
Reassigned for verification re-open issue and reassign to hi@openoffice.org
reassign to hi@openoffice.org
reset resolution to FIXED
Verified with cws os67 = ok
Just tested this out in Pavel's build of 149 and it looks good to me (albeit the string "surpress blank lines" or whatever is missing in my localisation). Unfortunately I can only see a way of surpressing blank lines during the Mail Merge wizzard and NOT the New > Labels feature (even though a lot of this bug talks about labels). os: Should this issue be re-opened in order to have the complete functionality or have I missed something?
*** Issue 61021 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
I see that 61021 has been marked as a duplicate, though it specifically refers to suppressing blank lines in labels. Since this issue (36696) is labelled as fixed, are we to understand that suppressing blank lines in labels will be present in 2.0.2? It certainly isn't present in developer snapshot 151.
Agreed, one of these issues needs re-opening, I think it should be this one. Re-opening as the fix for this issue is not complete (and 61021 has been marked as a dupe of this by hi)
Issue 61021 is corrected.
Also ok in master 680m150_8995.
closed
Hi *, Just tested the hidden paragraph function. OOo 2.0.3RC3, Win XP SP1 It works OK in mail merge, with both 2.0-Wizard and with 1.1.x merge dialog. However, if used with labels (more than one on a page), the labels with a hidden paragraph in it, remain completely empty. Sorry I've to write this :-(
Sorry again. It dóes work, only the label-wizard inserts line-feeds (shft-enters) rather than paragraphs (enters). Something to keep in mind when others have dificulties.