Greeting Line Problems in Word 2007

[brodiemac]

I am doing a small mail merge using a word doc and an excel spreadsheet as my
data source. The first and last names are separate columns in the
spreadsheet. When I create the address block, it properly aligns the first
and last name. When I try to to the greeting line, I specify the foramt as
Dear Mr. 'Lastname' but word refuses to just use the last name. It will
constantly overwrite it with first and last name. I don't understand why
when the data fields for first and last name are separate. Any help please?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

If you press Alt+F9 to toggle on the display of the field codes in the
mailmerge main document, what do you see?

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[brodiemac]

{GREETINGLINE\f"<<BEFORE_Dear>><<TITLE0_>><<_LAST_>> <<_AFTER_,>>"\1 1033 \e
Dear Sir or Madam,"}

I would assume I just remove the <<_LAST_>> to fix it? Question is, why is
it putting it in there in the first place. Also, when I choose to use just
the last name and not the first, it works fine. I think maybe something that
needs to be fixed by MS?

 

[brodiemac]

Strike my comment about remove the "<<_LAST_>>" from there.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Don't use the GREETING LINE thing, or the ADDRESSBLOCK for that matter.
Just insert the merge fields that YOU want in the configuration that YOU
want them.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[brodiemac]

Doesn't make much sense not to use a feature Microsoft inteneded to make life
easier but anyway....

The reason why it is not working is because word had no way of determining
if the addressee was a Mr. or a Mrs. Once I added a field for Gender and
matched it to the Courtesy Title, it worked just fine. Thanks for the help!

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

You will find the recommendation not to use the AddressBlock is given very
frequently in this newsgroup.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP