Mailmerge displays primary key rather than text

[Chris Mitchele]

I have built a MA Access 2003 query that contains all the data required for a
MS Word mailmerge. The query functions properly and all the fields display
correctly. However, when I use a mailmerge to access the data, some fields
that were populated from a relational table return the primary key of the
table rather than the text. For example, the name "Bill Smith" should appear
in the mail merge but instead I get "168" which is the primary key for the
table.

 

[Duane Hookom]

Apparently you used a lookup field in a table design. Many of us old (and
some yount) developers consider this bad practice. If you want a particular
field value to display in your merge, you must include the table containing
that value in the query.

I assume this means you need to add the contact/employee/persons/whatever
table to your query.