Word merge with IncludeText generating extraneous hidden chars

[judyz]

I have a merge letter using multiple IF and IncludeText statements to vary the text of the letter. This works correctly for all of the various IF statements when I merge the letter.

However, I also have a "master" document that I am using for 2 reasons:
1) to merge multiple forms (letter, envelope, information forms, etc) including the above letter in one pass (they all use the same data source), and
2) so that I can vary the font size of the letter based on criteria in the datasource. This is accomplished with the following:
{IF {MERGEFIELD Require_Large_print } = "True" "{INCLUDETEXT "AckLetterRecpt" \*CharFORMAT}" "{INCLUDETEXT "AckLetterRecpt" \* CHARFORMAT}"}
(the first/true/bolded part of the evaluation is formatted to a larger font size)

When I merge the master document to a file, everything looks fine. However, when I *print* the document on paper, a number prints as part of the text where the result of an IF statement appears. The number is either 1 or 2, which appears to depend on the evaluation of the Large print field that is made in the master document. The number is not visible or selectable on screen in the merged document, and does *not* print if I merge directly from the merge letter -- only if I merge from the master document. The IF statement where this appears is:
{IF MERGEFIELD VIP = "True" "

" "signature"}
(the actual letter has the location of a file containing a graphic with the signature instead of the word signature, but I changed it to text for testing purposes).

The 1 or 2 overprints the letter "s" in the word signature.

I am completely stumped as to where this number is coming from, why it is printing in this case (and not from any other IF statements) and how to get rid of it.

Any help or suggestions for what to look at would be greatly appreciated.

 

[BenRowe]

This is a wild guess, but could it be a page number in the header or footer. Are you viewing the doc in print layout view?

 

[judyz]

I am viewing it in print layout view, but there is nothing in any header or footer in any section of the document. Also, the numbers that print are in the middle of the document, and are not visible on-screen at all, not even if I do a print preview.

Any other ideas?