Number stored as text: Frustrated with Excel-Word Merge

[Marushel]

Hello, I have been trying to figure out the source of this error for several
hours without any results and hope someone can help me. I have been using an
Excel file to create a merge letter in word. So far it has been working like
a charm and the problem started just after I entered some new records.

In my word merge letter after the City, State, and Zip fields, I have a
word field, which is set to insert a hyphen after Zip field if "zip suffix
field is not blank". (The "otherwise insert this text" is left blank). This
is followed by the zip suffix field. This is intended to show both the zip
and zip suffix separated by a hyphen if some addresses do have a zip suffix.
So far, this has worked fine, but after my latest entry of new records in the
Excel worksheet, green corners started appearing in the zip and zip suffix
fields though both the fields are formatted as text. I manually clicked
"ignore this error" and the flags went away. However, now whenever I am
merging, for most of the old records, the State, zip and zip suffix are
appearing as they should (e.g., PA 1823-1234 or PA 18723), but for all the
new records that I have just entered, the Zip and zip suffix are appearing as
0 (when there is no zip suffix) and as 0-0 when there is a zip suffix. I am
stumped and am unable to figure out why this is happening. What went wrong?
Can someone please help?

 

[paul]

what was the error or variation denoted by the green triangle?excledisplays
the green tringle when the data or formula differs from the data/formula
around it

 

[Marushel]

The message is "The number in the cell is formatted as text or preceded by
apostrophe." The menu options when I click there are:
-Convert to number
-Help on this error
-Ignore the error
-Edit in formula bar.. etc.

I am not sure why the error is being displayed even after all the cells are
formatted as text. However, even after the triangle is made to disappear by
clicking on ignore error, I am not getting Word to be able to read from some
of the cells after merging. Word is perfectly able to read the Zip and zip
suffixes stored as text in other cells, but is not able to do so for some
other cells. I am not sure what could be causing this because all the cells
are formatted as text.

Will appreciate any suggestions or advice.

Marushel