Mail merge issues after Microsoft updates

Mail merge issue

You'll notice an additional blank link before Town, State/County, Postcode fields when performing Mail Merge in AE/AO.

Prior to the Microsoft update, the blank line was not present and the address fields looked like screenshot below:

In MYOB AE/AO, there are 3 address line fields (AddressLine1, AddressLine2, AddressLine3), and then the City, State/county and postcode fields. If you have values in each of the AddressLine fields, then the blank lines will not appear.

If you have address information in AddressLine2 or AddressLine3 fields, then only one blank line shows.

Tax letter issue

You might see the Error! Reference source not found message when printing a mail merge document of a tax letter(from the Tax Letters menu within a tax return), such as an invoice.

This error shows in some of the fields such as amounts, GST, Balance Owing, and happens when printing to PDF or a physical printer. The document will show blank values in the fields.

If your version of Office 365 has already updated to one of the affected versions listed here, then you will need to apply one of the workarounds below.

If you are not running Office 365 and running another version of Office, for example, Office 2016 then refer to Microsoft or your computer for the update around 30 March 2021.

The following is a list of affected versions as of April 15, 2021.

To remove excess blank lines in address

To remove one or more blank lines in the address, you'll need to edit the document in Word.

You'll not be able to edit the address blank lines if you are doing a mail merge directly to email.

To fix the error in the tax letter

Before printing your Tax Invoice/Letter, lock the fields in the documents to prevent the error.

It is important to follow the steps before printing the document. above. If you print before doing the steps above, you'll see the error as soon you print and you'll not be able to remove the error.

To lock the fields:

1. Generate the document as you'd normally do.
2. Open the document in Word and press CTRL+A to select all text in the document
3. Press CTRL+F11 to lock all merge fields
4. Print the document.

Microsoft Word does have a checkbox to allow you to control whether to Update fields before printing or not. However, no matter whether that tick box is selected or not prior to printing, the error will still occur if you don't follow the steps above.

It's important to consult with your IT Provider before completing the following steps. However, it is possible to disable the updates temporarily (providing that is permitted by your company policies).

In order to disable the updates temporarily, follow these steps:

1. Create a reminder in your calendar to check each month whether the issue has been resolved by further updates.
2. Open Microsoft Word.
3. Go to the File menu at the top left.
4. Select Office Account.
5. Press the Updates button.

As a final alternative that will require your IT provider's assistance, you can roll back the version of Office that is currently installed on your machine.

See the Microsoft Article How to revert to an earlier version of Office for information on how to do this.

In order to roll back, you will need to roll back to the version last known to not have any issues - which is the build released on March 18, 2021 - with Version 2102, Build 13801.20360