Numbers won't merge as formatted in Word 2007

[Cathy]

In Tools menu, I checked the Option to "Confirm Conversion at Open". When I
select the spreadsheet I am given the option of selecting DDE, but the
numbers still merge in unformatted and not at all like my spreadsheet.
Any idea what else I can do to get this to work? Does Microsoft have a patch
for this problem as it worked fine in older Word versions?

The documents I have to merge are several pages long and contain quite a few
fields to merge in, because of this I am looking for an alternative to
formatting with switches. Thanks

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Adding formatting switches to the fields or formatting the source data as
text are the only options that you have.

--
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, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Your best bet is probably to copy/paste your Excel sheet into a new Word
document, then use that as the data source, unless you have multi-line
data in your sheet and more columns than the maximum column count for a
Word table.

Incidentally (or perhaps not) is your Excel file a new-format
..xlsx/.xlsm or an old-format .xls? It may be worth trying the other
format if you have not already done so.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

 

[Cathy]

That is what I was afraid you would say. Thanks for your help

 

[macropod]

Hi Cathy,

You don't say what kind of data you're dealing with, so here's a fairly comprehensive list:

Mailmerge Number & Currency Formatting

In Word, add a numeric picture switch to the mergefield. To do this:
.. select the field;
.. press Shift-F9 to reveal the field coding. It should look something like {MERGEFIELD MyData};
.. edit the field so that you get {MERGEFIELD MyData \# $,0.00} (or whatever other numeric format you prefer - see below);

Note: The '\# 0' in the field is referred to as a numeric picture switch. Other possibilities include:
.. \# 0 for rounded whole numbers
.. \# ,0 for rounded whole numbers with a thousands separator
.. \# ,0.00 for numbers accurate to two decimal places, with a thousands separator
.. \# $,0 for rounded whole dollars with a thousands separator
.. \# $,0.00;($,0.00);'-' for currency, with brackets around negative numbers and a hyphen for 0 values

The precision of the displayed value is controilled by the '0.00'. You can use anything from '0' to '0.000000000000000'.

If you use a final ';' in the formatting switch with nothing following, (eg \# $,0.00;($,0.00) zero values will be suppressed.
Note that this suppresses 0s resulting from empty fields and from fields containing 0s.


Force $0.00 substitution for missing records

You can force the substitution of $0.00 for missing records via the following process:
1. Select your mergefield. For the purposes of this example, I'll suppose it's named 'Value' and shows up as '«Value»' in your
mailmerge main document.
2. Press Ctrl-F9 to embed your mergefield in another field, so that you get '{«Value»}'.
3. Type 'Set Val' into the '{«Value»}' field, so that you end up with '{Set Val «Value»}'
4. After the newly-inserted field, press Ctrl-F9 again to insert another (empty) field, so that you get '{Set Val «Value»}{ }'
5. Type '=Val \# "$,0.00"' into the second field, so that you end up with '{Set Val «Value»}{=Val \# "$,0.00"}'


Mailmerge Percentage Formatting

In Word, add a formula and numeric picture switch to the mergefield. To do this:
.. select your mergefield, which will look something like «Percent»;
.. press Ctrl-F9 to wrap another field around it, thus - { «Percent» };
.. edit the field so that you get {=«Percent»*100 \# 0.00%};

Note: the precision of the displayed value is controilled by the '0.00'. You can use anything from '0' to '0.000000000000000'.


Mailmerge Phone Number Formatting

In Word:
For the phone numbers, all you need to do is to add a picture switch to the mergefield in you mailmerge template. To do this:
.. select the mergefield;
.. press Shift-F9 to expose the field coding. It should look something like {MERGEFIELD MyData}, where 'MyData' is your data field's
name;
.. delete everything between 'MyData' and the closing field brace;
.. add ' \# "(000) 0000 0000"' after 'MyData', so that you end up with {MERGEFIELD MyData \# "(000) 0000 0000"};


Mailmerge Date Formatting

To get the date format you want, you can add a formatting picture switch. In Word:
.. select the mergefield;
.. press Shift-F9 to expose the field coding. It should look something like {MERGEFIELD MyDate} where 'MyDate' is your mergefield's
name;
.. delete anything appearing after the mergefield's name and add '\@ "d MMMM yyyy"' to the field, as in {MERGEFIELD MyDate \@ "d MMMM
yyyy"}. With this switch your date will come out as '2 August 2008'. Other possible date formatting switches include:
. \@ "dddd, d MMMM yyyy";
. \@ "ddd, d MMMM yyyy";
. \@ "d MMM yyyy";
. \@ "dd/MMM/yyyy";
. \@ "d-MM-yy";
Note: Note: you can swap the d, M, y expressions around, but you must use uppercase 'M's for months.


Mailmerge Time Formatting

To get the time format you want, you can add a formatting picture switch. In Word:
.. select the mergefield;
.. press Shift-F9 to expose the field coding. It should look something like {MERGEFIELD MyTime} where 'MyTime' is your mergefield's
name;
.. delete anything appearing after the mergefield's name and add '\@ "h:m"', as in {MERGEFIELD MyTime \@ "h:m am/pm"}. Note: you must
use lowercase 'm's for minutes;
.. if you want the hours and/or minutes to display leading 0s, change 'h' to 'hh for hours and 'm' to 'mm' for minutes;


When you're done making the changes to a given mergefield:
.. position the cursor anywhere in this field and press F9 to update it;
.. run your mailmerge.