Mail merge Dates puzzler

[Alex Hammerstein]

Hi

We have a document that is used as a mail merge document.

I date field is being pulled from an Access database.

Looking at the data in the Access query - the date is in UK format
dd/mm/yyyy. However the date is being displayed in the Word Document as US
format mm/dd/yyyy

I have looked at the VB Script editor, and the language for the field is set
to lang-EN-GB.

Can anyone explain what the problem is, and what I need to do to fix it.

Regards

Alex

 

[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. (In Word
2007 it is Office Button > Word Options > Advanced > General > Confirm file
format conversion on open). 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.

Or use a date switch to format the field
http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Alex Hammerstein]

Thanks for that Graham

When I have done that, although the date has changed back to UK format,
whenever I open the document, I am also opening the Access database now

Alex

 

[Peter Jamieson]

See the relevant section on Cindy Meiser's website at

http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/MM2002/ConnMe02.htm#DatesBug

Although there is a KB article which says the problem was fixed for Word
XP (at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327579 ) it is not completely
clear that this problem has been fixed elsewhere. Since it would
probably need a fix to the OLE DB provider rather than Word itself, it's
possible that a particular version of the OLE DB provider may have fixed
it. But I'm not sure - perhaps better to try the "query" approach
suggested by Cindy first.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk