UK date format in Mail Merge letters

[Ishbel Kargar]

In my database the date fields are set to UK format (e.g. 'Expiry' dd/mm/yy).
But in the mail-merge document (Word 2003), the 'expiry' date shows as
mm/dd/yy, which is confusing for UK members. (i.e. expiry 1st December 2004
shows up as 12/1/04. Result: member will complain that I've got her
subscription expiry date wrong!) Consequently I've just hand-written the
expiry date on 85 mail-merge reminder letters! Crazy, when mail-merge should
print it correctly!

I've tried various options to change the setting, without success.

Helpful solutions gratefully recieved.

Ishbel Kargar

 

[Rick B]

I believe that you can set the format of the field in your Word document by
selecting the "properties".

This question might be more suited for the WORD newsgroup.

Rick B

 

[fredg]

In my database the date fields are set to UK format (e.g. 'Expiry' dd/mm/yy).
But in the mail-merge document (Word 2003), the 'expiry' date shows as
mm/dd/yy, which is confusing for UK members. (i.e. expiry 1st December 2004
shows up as 12/1/04. Result: member will complain that I've got her
subscription expiry date wrong!) Consequently I've just hand-written the
expiry date on 85 mail-merge reminder letters! Crazy, when mail-merge should
print it correctly!

I've tried various options to change the setting, without success.

Helpful solutions gratefully recieved.

Ishbel Kargar

Create a query to use as record source for the merged document.
While you must use U.S. date format if you are using a parameter, you
can return fields in your UK format using:
UKDate:Format([DateField],"dd/mm/yy")
Use this [UKDate] field in the Word document.

 

[Ishbel Kargar]

Dear Fredg

Many thanks for your response. I still couldn't get the date showing as UK
format and was becoming very frustrated.
Then I had a brainwave. The problem is incompatibility between Access 2000
and Word 2003! I had upgraded to Office 2003, but had difficulties with the
datebase, so I reverted to Access 2000. I like the enhancements in Word 2003
so kept that. Now I've re-loaded Word 2000 (just to use for mail-merging
from Access), and it's working like a dream!

I didn't see any warnings about incompatibility when I upgraded to 2003. We
live and learn!

Thanks again, anyway.
Regards
Ishbel Kargar

 

[Ishbel Kargar]

Dear Rick

Many thanks for your response. I still couldn't get the date showing as UK
format and was becoming very frustrated.
Then I had a brainwave. The problem is incompatibility between Access 2000
and Word 2003! I had upgraded to Office 2003, but had difficulties with the
datebase, so I reverted to Access 2000. I like the enhancements in Word 2003
so kept that. Now I've re-loaded Word 2000 (just to use for mail-merging
from Access), and it's working like a dream!

I didn't see any warnings about incompatibility when I upgraded to 2003. We
live and learn!

Thanks again, anyway.
Regards
Ishbel Kargar