Merged Date format switches not working in Word 2003

[CarolMarie]

Hi,

I'm using MS Word 2003 (Small Business) and merging from Excel. I have
another letter that merges the date without any problem (same field name,
same file, different worksheet). I've even gone ahead and cut and pasted
the Merge Field (with all it's formatting) from one Word file to the other
and I still get it in what I think is called the gregorian format (a 5 digit
number - e.g. 39474). I've searched through the other posts, but nothing
seems to address this issue.

I'm using the code: MERGEFIELD "recd_date" \@ "MMMM d, yyyy", but after
making the change by going to right click, edit field, mergefield,
fieldcodes, options, preserve formattign during updates, OK.

The formatting picture I've selected then just disappears.

Carol Marie

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

What you are getting appears to be the date serial number from Excel. From
the Tools menu in Word, select Options and then go to the General Tab and
check the box against "Confirm coversions at open" Then re-attach the data
source to the mail merge main document and when asked how the connection
should be made, select the DDE option.

--
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

 

[CarolMarie]

I even went to the letter I had that formats correctly, made a copy of it,
replaced the text around the field I'm interested in, and connected to my
data source (same excel file, different data set in another worksheet, same
columns, same formatting from what I can tell) and I have the problem in the
new Word document.

If I point to the other worksheet, the date format is just what I want.

Any thoughts?

Carol Marie

 

[Peter Jamieson]

The solution Doug suggested should work - if you want an "explanation" there
is one at http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk/t0003.htm

 

[CarolMarie]

Thanks for your response. I tried yours and Doug's suggestion, but seemed
to be chasing down a rabbit hole. I undid it, went back and finally entered
a new column in my spreadsheet, renamed the previous one, placing the column
name I wanted on the new column. That may have been superstitious behavior
(unnecessary, unproductive), because at one point I needed to fix the field
name to acknowledge the space with an underscore. With enough monkeying
around, reading, double checking I had slash vs backslash (or visa versa),
etc. I've finally got it working.

I appreciate your assistance,

Carol Marie

 

[CarolMarie]

Thanks. Read my response to Peter to see the monkeying around I went
through in the process of fixing this, but I seem to have finally gotten it
to work. I suspect that my main problem was with the field name and the
space that is in the excel column header ("recd date") which I didn't enter
as "recd_date".

I appreciate your time in responding to my question.

Carol Marie

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Carol Marie,

Glad you got it working and thanks for letting us know.