Merge with Percentage field looses formatting

[Rone]

I'm having difficulty getting a percentage field from and Excel sheet to
properly format when I merge it with Word. I've had no problems getting
currency fields to format, but for some reason I can't get the percentages to
format right.

Here is the switch code I'm using: {MERGEFIELD "CAM_PERCENT" * 100
\#"##.##%"} This displays .0388% But I want it to display 3.88%. I've
also tried using 0's and moving the decimal around, but it hasn't helped me
any. I saw somewhere where someone used \#"0%", but this only displays '0%'
when merged.

I'm a bit new to this switching stuff. Does my version of Word have
anything to do with this? Its Word 2003 Professional v. 11.5604

Thanks for the help

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

For the following values of CAM_PERCENT, the following field construction
will give the results indicated

{ = { MERGEFIELD CAM_PERCENT } * 100 \# 0.00% }

0.0388 3.88%
3.88 388.00%

--
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

 

[Graham Mayor]

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

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[PA]

There is certainly nothing wrong with using switches, but the problem is
solved in a more complex manner than is necessary.
In Word, select Options from the Tools menu, and then select the General
tab. Put a check in Confirm Conversion at Open and click OK.
Henceforth, when merging from Excel, you will be given a choice of
conversion protocols while attaching your Excel data file to the Word
document. Choose DDE.
Using this solution you need never be concerned in the future when merging
formatted data, currency, percentage, date, etc, not only from Excel but
Access as well. Except in extrodinary circumstance, forget that switches
even exist. Just always choose DDE.

 

[Rone]

Doug -- I get a "Syntax Error" when I use the following switch: { = {
MERGEFIELD CAM_PERCENT } * 100 \# 0.00% }

I also tried connecting using the DDE stuff, but I lost all my fields during
the merge, and there are a lot of fields to lose. I think at this point I'd
rather try to get the percent stuff to work. I just don't understand why it
works fine for currency fields, but the percent fields it does not.

....any ideas why?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

All the {} need to be the special field braces you can insert using ctrl-F9,
not the ordinary { and } characters you can insert using the keyboard.

that's my best guess as to what's wrong, anyway...

Peter Jamieson

 

[Rone]

It worked! Thanks Peter. You were exactly right. I was typing in the {}
instead of using CTRL-F9 to insert them. I've been messing around for hours
on that! Thanks again for your help. Must be a common newbie mistake.

Thanks again!

 

[llmed]

Thank you so much! I wish I had read this about 2 hours ago!

 

[FLSusanC]

I thought this was a great suggestion and tried it right away, however, there
is a huge delay during the merge and the connection times out and the merge
is not completed. Any ideas about that?

 

[Graham Mayor]

DDE is less reliable, which presumably is why Microsoft changed it as
default. Use switches http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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