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I often want to alter my CV for different purposes, like only mention my German skills when it is relevant.

Is there a way I can have such alternate versions in one Word Document? OR Alternatively have some source in a different format (Like Google Docs), which I can work with in a similar way, and generate a word document from it?

I am think of having flags like "WithGerman" and that I can work with each version in a WYSIWYG way.

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  • The title and question specify Word, but you have tags for OpenOffice and Google Docs. Any available solutions will be completely different on those three, and Google Docs is off-topic (ask on the webapps site). Please clarify which application you need a solution for and remove the tags that don't apply. Thanks.
    – fixer1234
    Sep 22, 2015 at 18:07
  • I usually have to send my CV as a word document. I don't really have to edit in Word. (OpenOffice and Google Docs easily convert to word, and are the most likely alternatives I can think of). So I don't see any reason to change it.
    – Olav
    Sep 22, 2015 at 18:48
  • The issue isn't the editing, it's the features that let you create alternate versions, which is the subject of the question. That would likely use features like fields, mail merge, etc., which are completely different, to the extent they exist, in each app.
    – fixer1234
    Sep 22, 2015 at 18:56
  • I think this is not so straight forward, so I must look for solutions from different environments. There is no Word-processor tag (And that google-docs is a valid tag should imply that you can use it). Also the question is not really about features, as I don't know exactly what features I should use
    – Olav
    Sep 22, 2015 at 19:41
  • Word can do this with its own features. I've never explored doing it in OpenOffice. If you hover on the Google Docs tag, you'll see that webapps is where it's on topic. You could edit and maintain the content in different word processors, if needed for convenience, but that isn't relevant to your question. The actual generation of a custom-merged document would involve a single app. Do a quick search for existing answers (I'm sure I've seen similar questions).
    – fixer1234
    Sep 22, 2015 at 20:23

2 Answers 2

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In Microsoft Word, you can do this by enclosing the text you want to be conditional inside an "IF" field, and using a document property such as "Category" to control it.

If you want a "With German" resume and a "No German" resume, then you might have the following in your document:

{IF {DOCPROPERTY Category} = "With German" "Fluent in written and spoken German."}

Then, when you want the resume to include the German content, go to File and change the Category property to With German (This is case sensitive.)

Note that you need to press CTRL-F9 to create a field. Just typing the curly brackets will not work. Also note that the conditional text needs to be in quotes.

To avoid having random extra lines in your document, put the field on the same line as the paragraph of regular text that comes after it, and include a hard return inside the quotation marks in the field. For example:

Standard Resume Content

{IF {DOCPROPERTY Category} = "With German" "Fluent in written and spoken German."
}Another paragraph of standard resume content.

becomes

Standard Resume Content

Fluent in written and spoken German.

Another paragraph of standard resume content.

when the category is "With German" and

Standard Resume Content

Another paragraph of standard resume content.

when the category is anything else.

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I think you can do this with conditional text in MS Word.

This PDF seems to offer a good insight into how to do this.

http://www.abelard.com.au/words-3-2.pdf (NOTE: This is an active download link; clicking the link will immediately download this file.)

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    The site's purpose is to build a knowledgebase of questions and answers rather than a collection of links to answers elsewhere. External links can break, in which case your answer would contain nothing except a speculative hint. We ask that you make answers self-contained by including the essential information here and use the link for attribution and further reading. Answers that aren't much more than a link tend to attract downvotes and are often deleted. Also, please be aware that people are security conscious and get concerned when clicking a link immediately downloads an unknown file.
    – fixer1234
    Sep 23, 2015 at 3:41
  • The first sentence of the doc describes exactly what I am looking for.
    – Olav
    Sep 23, 2015 at 6:08
  • First sentence is "Numbers have fascinated Homosapiens for millennia." I guess you meant a different first sentence. Or I did not get you.
    – seb
    Oct 25, 2019 at 0:40

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