How to use conditional sections to generate personalized documents
Overview
Section conditions let you show or hide entire sections of a merge template based on the value of a merge field. This is especially useful for avoiding inline text conditions at the paragraph level, which can become complex when conditional content spans multiple pages.
For example, a realtor can use a single proposal template for both residential and commercial properties. Based on the Property Type field, the merge process can display the relevant property details while hiding the irrelevant section.
Prerequisites
- Create your mail merge template and insert all the required merge fields. Refer to how to create merge templates and how to insert merge fields.
- Divide your document into sections by inserting section breaks wherever you want to apply conditions. Refer to how to create sections.
- Assign a name to every section that you want to apply a condition to. Section conditions can only be configured for named sections. Refer to how to name a section.
Steps
How to configure a section condition
You can configure section conditions in either of the following ways.
Method 1: From the Navigation pane
- In the Navigator pane, locate the named section.
- Click the Condition icon (Show/Hide section based on condition).
Method 2: From the Automate pane
- Open the Automate pane.
- Under Advanced Merge Fields, expand Conditions.
- Click Insert Section Condition.
- Select the named section for which you want to configure the condition.
Set up a section condition
- Select the merge field that determines whether the section should be displayed.
Example: Property Type
- Choose the appropriate operator (for example, Contains).
- Enter the value that should display the section. For example:
- Residential to display the Residential Property Details section.
- Commercial to display the Commercial Property Details section.
- Click Update to save the condition.
You can edit the condition or add additional conditions later to meet your business requirements.
Verify the output
- Click Preview Merge to verify that the correct sections are displayed for each record.
- Configure your merge trigger and output settings. Refer to how to configure output settings in Writer document merge.
- Run the merge to generate personalized documents.
Related articles
- How to create merge templates
- How to insert merge fields
- How to create sections
- How to name a section
- How to configure conditions
- How to configure output settings in Writer document merge
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