Reply To: CS4 Data Merge – commonly known issue with consecutive blank fields

If I enter a Paragraph Return (ENTER) after every data merge field the empty lines get removed no matter how many there are.
If I enter a Forced Line Break (SHIFT-ENTER) after every data merge field the empty lines don't get removed as the line break doesn't seem to get taken into account for the data merge.

You could always press Ctrl + Alt + i (Cmd + Opt + i on Mac) to see what's keeping the empty lines visible. If it's not related to the breaks prior to merging you could select the offending invisible characters and use Find/Change to get rid of them in the merged document.

— edited for clarity.