Bug 137618 - MAIL MERGE: Not obvious that 'Suppress lines with just empty fields' is working
Summary: MAIL MERGE: Not obvious that 'Suppress lines with just empty fields' is working
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.0.2.2 release
Hardware: All All
: low trivial
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Mail-Merge
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2020-10-20 11:19 UTC by Mike Sapsard
Modified: 2025-08-01 03:39 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Screenshot showing Mail Merge text box does not hide empty lines (94.12 KB, image/png)
2020-10-20 11:23 UTC, Mike Sapsard
Details
fictitious-addresses (11.70 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet)
2023-07-31 08:38 UTC, Sophie Sipasseuth
Details

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Description Mike Sapsard 2020-10-20 11:19:17 UTC
Description:
In Mail Merge, there is an option to 'Suppress lines with just empty fields'. There is a small text box below that shows how the fields will be displayed. The data can be scrolled through to check the results. However, the text box view does not hide the empty fields. There is a screenshot example below.

This leads the user to assume that it is not working properly.

Ultimately, if the mail merge is completed and printed to file, it can then be seen that it worked correctly.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create a spreadsheet with names and addresses.
2. Create a Writer document.
3. Use Tools | Mail Merge Wizard to create address fields in the document.


Actual Results:
The Mail Merge Wizard text box does not display blank fields correctly. It inserts a blank line, rather than hiding a single empty field on a line.

Expected Results:
The text box should not have displayed lines with no data.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
Screenshot will be attached.
Comment 1 Mike Sapsard 2020-10-20 11:23:01 UTC
Created attachment 166539 [details]
Screenshot showing Mail Merge text box does not hide empty lines
Comment 2 Buovjaga 2020-11-30 15:02:17 UTC
Can you attach an example address list (with some bogus info) so we can test accurately?
Comment 3 Timur 2021-01-26 11:07:08 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 4 Timur 2021-03-03 15:46:51 UTC
Repro 7.2+. I mark trivial. 
Needs ODS with usual fields, but with some empty in the 1st record, which is only seen in preview.
Comment 5 Sophie Sipasseuth 2023-07-31 08:38:43 UTC
Created attachment 188668 [details]
fictitious-addresses
Comment 6 QA Administrators 2025-07-31 03:13:42 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 7 Mike Sapsard 2025-07-31 09:10:19 UTC
Checked out mail merge again. Methodology has changed. A spreadsheet is now displayed with drag and drop into the form.
Comment 8 Mike Sapsard 2025-07-31 14:47:50 UTC
I forgot to mention that I tested again on 25.2.4.3 (X86-64)
Comment 9 QA Administrators 2025-08-01 03:39:25 UTC
Dear Mike Sapsard,

To make sure we're focusing on the bugs that affect our users today, LibreOffice QA is asking bug reporters and confirmers to retest open, confirmed bugs which have not been touched for over a year.

There have been thousands of bug fixes and commits since anyone checked on this bug report. During that time, it's possible that the bug has been fixed, or the details of the problem have changed. We'd really appreciate your help in getting confirmation that the bug is still present.

If you have time, please do the following:

Test to see if the bug is still present with the latest version of LibreOffice from https://www.libreoffice.org/download/

If the bug is present, please leave a comment that includes the information from Help - About LibreOffice.
 
If the bug is NOT present, please set the bug's Status field to RESOLVED-WORKSFORME and leave a comment that includes the information from Help - About LibreOffice.

Please DO NOT

Update the version field
Reply via email (please reply directly on the bug tracker)
Set the bug's Status field to RESOLVED - FIXED (this status has a particular meaning that is not 
appropriate in this case)


If you want to do more to help you can test to see if your issue is a REGRESSION. To do so:
1. Download and install oldest version of LibreOffice (usually 3.3 unless your bug pertains to a feature added after 3.3) from https://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/

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4a. If the bug was present with 3.3 - set version to 'inherited from OOo';
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