Merge Fields and Formating - How to easily repeat a pre-set merge.

[David Nelson]

I am attempting to merge Excel fields into a Word Document using mailmerge
(essentially filling in a form). For lack of a better document I am using
"letter" merge (8.5"x11") as my "form" (e.g. a blank piece of paper). I am
experiencing two issues:

1. The numbers are losing their formating. One field I would like to have
as currency with cents and another is a "Stock Number" that is alphanumeric.
The currency field comes across as a number with no formating. The
alphanumeric part is fine as long as it is numeric only (if an "alpha" is in
it the value returned is "0"). My field values are reflected as
<<STOCK_NO>> and <<LST_PRICE>>.

2. My second issue is that this process would be run several times a week.
It appears the easiest way to make this repeatable is to create a template
(*.dot) file that references the same Excel file and process it with the
updates...or am I missing something?

Thanks in Advance,

Dave

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

See "Formatting Word fields with switches" on fellow MVP Graham Mayor's
website at

http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm

Just saving the mailmerge main document as a document should suffice. Then
just open it and execute the merge whenever it is required.


--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[David Nelson]

I went to Graham Mayor's webpage and thought I followed the instructions and
here is what I got (I was trying to get the "List Price" = LST_PRICE to show
as a dollar amount). The first group are my field names and coding. The
second set of information is a sample of the result. Obviously I something
is "lost in translation." Most likely something really simple.

{«LST_PRICE» Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"}

«CARLINE»

«STOCK_NO»

«Pinstripes»

«Paint»

«Total»



{27315. Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"}

ACCORD COUPE

5014.0

459.

250.

28024

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I assume that what you wanted was $27,315.00 (or maybe "Amount $27,315.00)
and I assume that the 27315 comes from the LST_PRICE field

Did you use Ctrl+F9 to insert the field delimiters? If you did, it may just
be a matter of use Alt+F9 to toggle off the display of field codes.
(However, you will have to get rid of the word Amount from inside the field.


--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Graham Mayor]

You skipped the important third paragraph when you took that information
from my web site

Toggle the field code (ALT+F9) to change <<LTST_PRICE>> to {Mergefield
LSTST_PRICE}
Inside the brackets, add the switch
Toggle back, then F9 to update.


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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[David Nelson]

Quite right. ALT+F9 made all the difference. I have to admit reading
directions is sometimes as difficult as asking for directions. While it is
probably already on your website, I am suffering from lazy bones, so let me
know if it explains how to format an alphanumeric field to be an
alphanumeric field (my "stock numbers" that are numeric work fine, those
preceded with a letter come across as "0").

A warm thanks in advance to you and Doug for your assistance. If ever in
Austin let me know and I buy you a beer or coffee (depending on time of
day).

 

[Graham Mayor]

You cannot do alphanumeric fields with a switch. If they are not coming
across correctly (and they should) then you need to use the alternative
method of connection to your data as detailed in the Excel data section of
http://www.gmayor.com/mail_merge_labels_with_word_xp.htm where I wrote it
down to save having to rewrite it individually for each user who asked

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


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

 

[Sean Bishop]

I do not understand all this fields business in mailmerge but I do use
mailmerge a lot and I found the easiest thing to do is set up some extra
columns in my excel spreadsheet and convert to the item I have problems with
(dates, currency, alphanumerics etc.) to text and use the text columns in the
mailmerge.