Date Mail Merge

[Hugh Murfitt]

I have 5 date fields in a document, merged from Excel. I am using the same
date switch - { MERGEFIELD DOB_Child_2 \@ "d/M/yyyy" \* MERGEFORMAT } – for
all 5. Two of the date fields merge correctly but the others are displayed
as the Excel date code, e.g. 39128 (for 15/2/2007).

This is reflected in the “Mail Merge Recipients†dialogue. The first two
columns of dates in my list show correctly formatted dates e.g 8/9/1998 and
11/11/2001, but the third, fourth and fifth are 39128, 38225 and 38435

I’ve checked my source data in Excel and, as far as I can tell, it’s all
formatted correctly i.e. it is all displayed as dates, not codes. So where
is the formatting being “lost� Can I manipulate the Mail Merge Recipients
data?

Many thanks for your help

(This may be an Excel issue. If it is invalid to repost in the Excel
discussion group if I do not find a solution here, please let me know.)

 

[Graham Mayor]

From the Tools menu in Word, select Options and then go to the General tab
and check the box against the "Confirm conversions at open" item. Then when
you attach the data source to the mail merge main document, you will be
given the option of using the DDE method of connection which should read the
data as you have it formatted in the table.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Hugh Murfitt]

Thanks for the reply, Graham.

I've tried openng the doc with that box checked and again with it
un-checked. It makes no difference. I think the problem is that, in 2 out
of 5 columns, the mail merge is reading the Excel data as date, but reading
3/5 as numbers. But I don't know why. I've formatted all 5 Excel columns
the same way using format painter.

Maybe somewhere in the mail merge, the formating is being lost...? But how
can I control this?

I'd be glad of any more assistance.