Using Database Fields

Inserting database fields into a document means that the appropriate data for the record being printed will be substituted for the field name. In other words, if a document uses Membership Fields, you could select the First Name field from the field list. This would create something like:

When the document is printed, the system will substitute "John" for "<<First Name>>" when it prints a letter for the "John Smith" record.

Database fields can be used anywhere in the document (including within tables) with the exception of Text Frames. Embedded fields will not work inside a Text Frame because the frame isn't treated as a part of the document for finding/replacing text.

•	Choose the records to be printed by entering criteria settings

2	Click the Show Fields button. The field list will contain the fields appropriate to the type of document.

Note: The default document that is automatically created when the Documents window opens uses Membership Data. To use Group data instead, create a new document and pick Group Data for the available fields.

3	Place the cursor where the field should go, and then click the field name in the list. The field name will appear in the document.

1	Click the Settings button to open the criteria for the document.

2	Document criteria works just like report criteria, or search criteria on the membership/group list. For more information and examples see Entering Advanced Search Criteria. Use the settings window to enter the required criteria, then click Save to return to the document.

3	To see the records that will be found by the criteria, click the Show Data button.

Note: The columns displayed are only to help verify that the correct records were selected. They do not necessarily correspond to the fields that have been used on the document.

There are situations where telling the system to "delete the line" when the only thing on it is blank, is helpful. We cannot force the software to do this automatically though, because there are times when it wouldn't be appropriate. So this section explains how to "tell the system" what you want to do. For example, consider an address block like this:

<<Name (First/Last Name)>>
<<Address Line 1>>
<<Address Line 2>>
<<City/State/ZIP Code>>

If a record is missing data for Address Line 2, the output will show a blank line, like this:

In order to prevent this, create the address block and add a leading "@" symbol ahead of any field that should get special treatment when blank, like this:

<<Name (First/Last Name)>>
@<<Address Line 1>>
@<<Address Line 2>>
@<<City/State/ZIP Code>>

The "@" symbol is never printed, but instead causes the system to effectively hit the backspace key. So if the field is the first thing on the line, the "backspace" causes it to delete the line break and jump up to the previous line. The resulting output looks like this:

This trick can also be used when fields are lined up on the same line. For example: